A Dying Paradigm
by Ultimecix
Summary: A telling of the events that would indirectly lead to the destruction of the Planet. Lucrecia's struggle recognized, Vincent and Lucrecia's relationship from her point of view, and what really happened in Nibelheim those thirty-some years ago. Lucrecia's story based on the Dirge of Cerberus and Nibelheim flashbacks and some select revisions. Rated for language and adult situations.
1. PROLOGUE

Final Fantasy VII and it's characters are property of Square-Enix. I hold no affiliation with said organization and make no profit from this fiction; it is for entertainment purposes only.

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><p>PROLOGUE - A Dying Paradigm<p>

The fields surrounding Junon Harbor were strings of peaceful cadence and painted with colors almost too beautiful too be natural. Though nowhere in immediate sight, the ocean could still be heard sporadically, the rough waves crashing against the plateau of the strange town. It was almost dusk, and quite likely that she'd be sent for soon, though it was easy to make that fact invisible in her extravagant adventure.

Normally she'd have spent the evening collecting seashells on a day this warm, basking in the sun on the beach while the salty water sprayed her. The tides were much too high that day. She'd settled for a journey she'd not yet practiced, and that was the increasingly attractive miles of open field and the forest that awaited at the end. She'd never ventured quite that far before, and there would be certain trouble if they were to find out.

It was getting past time to turn around when she'd reached the edge of the tall wall of trees. She ran her hands over the bark of each one as she'd walked along the outside, basking in the sensation of the authentic nature that was before her. She'd always felt more at peace the farther away from civilization she'd gotten, and she'd known it was because no one would tell her to stop doing her strange things that disconcerted strangers. The only voices she'd ever heard out here were friendly and welcoming, and never suggested she was weird or different. The child's face noticed ahead something that looked like an unusual shadow, though there was nothing around to project such a shape. The dark color was unsettling.

A growl rippled low through the air, and it had nothing to do with the ocean. Wild curiosity pushed her small bared feet to move closer, closer to that darkness in day. She could hear the soft sound of trickling water. A fountain? Feeling the thrill of something potentially dangerous, she approached where the dark water had pooled, looking down at a perfect reflection of her own dirtied features.

_Don't be afraid_, a voice purred inside her mind, and at that same moment she gasped and flew backward. It was not the normal voice she'd heard sometimes when she was all alone. This one was different. _Noooo..._ It sounded like velvet, masculine, with an underlying harshness that she couldn't place. So faint that it would have been easy to believe it was only imagined. She'd heard things before, unsure whether real thoughts or delusions, but never anything like this.

_I will not harm you...Come closer, closer child, so that I can seeeeee... yeeeessss...that's it. _Her tiny mind whirled between the instinct to run away and the compulsion that rendered her paralyzed in that spot_. _The pool rippled with the voice. _Do you know what I am, child?_

"No," She whispered.

_Then come closer... _The little girl's face contorted in both confusion and frustration; she was already close enough that if she'd got any closer, she'd be stepping into the mysterious water, which was not happening. She knelt down and the remaining daylight allowed her to notice that the water hadn't been clear, but an opaque black instead. _Closer..._

The little girl reached a brave hand out to hold it just over the small movements, and touched the surface.

The rippling hadn't been water at all, but rather an abyss.

Tiny hands caressed over the odd void, attempting to scoop some up in her hand for closer examination. The black substance poured through the slits of her fingers.

The dirt underneath her began to shift from under her soles. She stood back up and back-stepped, but the ground had suddenly completely disappeared right from underneath her feet, falling into a much larger version of the black void that was now a lake underneath her. She had hold of something she hadn't even remembered grabbing and panicked. She started screaming. "Help! Somebody help me! I-AH!"

_SSSILENCE. Lest we be overheard, little one._

She was hyperventilating, trying to climb back to the surface, but the earth she'd tried to get traction on would crumble like dust under her small hands. She then noticed it wasn't a vine that she had a hold of, but rather the other way around. The vine was an iridescent black. She struggled against its grip, and it squeezed tighter around her wrist that glowed almost inconspicuously. "Please, let me go!"

_You insist such ssstupid commands. Very well..._

The vine released her; the void around her crawled up the sinkhole walls and gave the sensation of falling at an accelerated rate. She shrieked and it was a few more seconds before the vine had hold of her once more.

_I knew you didn't really want that. It is crucial to realize what your intentions are before acting now, isn't it? You best never forget thisss._

"Lucrecia!" An angry, familiar voice called from the direction of the distant town. Her eyes opened with her cheek pressed against the warm soil. She sat up and gripped at her sore wrist which bore no visible indications of stress or injury. The terrain had returned to its original state, looking as if it had never been disturbed.

The last of the day's sun reflected off of the black one last time and she quickly crawled over to it. The dark matter sank into the ground like liquid over dehydrated soil. "No, wait! Come back!" The child clung to the unchanged dirt. "Please?" She shuffled to her feat and searched the ground frantically.

The calls behind her got louder until a large hand grasped her arm and forcefully turned her around to face the hardened face of her older brother. His hands were on both of her shoulders and he practically shook her. "You..." He was gasping for air. "You cannot run off like that! What are you thinking?!"

"But didn't you see it?!" The little girl turned back to the spring, trying to pry herself from the young man's strong hands. "There was something in that fountain! Well... there was a fountain... not really a fountain... but it talked to me! And then-"

"Why were you screaming?" He demanded.

The girl kept a straight face. "I didn't scream."

"Yes, you did. I heard you. Why do you think I was running?"

"You were hearing voices again!"

The male's hands tightened around her forearms. "You stop that this instant!" He was still trying to catch his breath. After a few seconds his eyes softened and looked down, his head shaking in a familiar way. "Lucrecia, you have to stop with these wild stories. We were so worried about you. Mother is not well. Do you want to be the death of her?"

The little girl's head shook frantically. "I don't want to kill Mother..."

"Let's get back then. This is for your own good," Lux said. "And no more of this nonsense. Really. Enough is enough."

"Okay."

000

The familiar golden ringlets fell across her shoulders in the one true place she loved more than anywhere else. Her mother's tight arms secured around her, and they would stave off even the most frightening monsters of her dreams; they could never reach her here. "Tell me again."

The musical voice pealed with the sweetest sound from the most beautiful voice. "Oh, they were such wondrous creatures, they were. And beautiful. They were the Planet's first settlers. And they were magical." The woman sighed and closed her eyes. She had been tired more and more lately. "Did you have fun today, my doveling?"

The child's face lit up with excitement. "Yes I did! I-" She'd caught her sibling's death glare, warning her."I met some...thing. And then something scary happened... but I am alright. Please don't worry, Mother."

"Oh! Oh my. Did you have that thing with you?"

"Yes, ma."

"It will keep you safe. Always keep it." Soft hands delved into her dirty brown locks. It would always seem that no matter how unkempt her hair became, Mother's hands could take away tangles with no pain. She laid against her mother and sighed.

Lux looked up from the stick he'd been working with a small knife near the fireplace. "It's time for bed. No more stories, from either of you." The child embraced the golden-haired woman and climbed down from her lap and headed up the ladder to her loft bed. Snuggling into the covers, her brother's callous voice continue. "She's odd enough, mother. You've got to stop putting these things in her head."

She could almost hear her mother smile.

000

They'd moved to the sunless city sometime soon after. Her elder sibling's enthusiasm for his newly awarded and coveted occupation had left much to be desired, and had been no replacement for the light that she'd been deprived of along with the transition. Lux had a perpetual face of stone, and the gloomy slums of Midgar seemed perfectly fitting for his protagonistic endeavor, though she had wondered how much of his influence was her accomplishment.

After all, no sky. No sun. No place to run off and hear voices. It was the place where happiness was sent to die.

Rested upon her thigh was the sleeping form of Lucille; her mother's final contribution before returning to the planet just two years later. Lucille, whom had been lately preferring her sister's warmth over the springy excuse for a mattress on the superfluous second floor, was too young to remember their mother, and part of Lucrecia had been remorsefully grateful for that. Her mother was often recognized for having a toxic imagination.

Hands trembled uncontrollably as she struggled to open the official Shinra sealed letter. She already knew what it contained. Already knew the words before they would sting tears in her eyes. She knew it before he'd even gone away.

**ATTN: Crescent family**

Hardly a family anymore.

**12 Pillarspark Way**

**Midgar, Sector 5 **

**It is with our deepest regret to inform you that Lux Thrace**

Her arm dropped, and the letter slipped through her weakened hand to the cold wooden floor, leaving the rest of the message unread.

000

"But he's our brother Cresh, shouldn't we have the same last name?"

Lucrecia swallowed hard, and sighed. "Lux has his father's last name."

"Oh... then shouldn't my last name be different from yours? My father isn't your father."

The older sister closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. Normally she had more patience with the younger girl, but today wasn't one of those days. They were separated by only five years, though to the fifteen year old, the gap seemed much more significant.

_Mother thought 'Crescent' made us sound more spiritual..._

She watched Lucille study the Shinra letter as her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Lucrecia cleared her throat, willing her voice even."Do you have any other questions?"

"What does self-in...inflicted mean?"

Lucrecia quickly reached out and snatched the paper from the smaller hands and crumpled it into a tight ball. When did Sille become so good at reading? The paper ball was tossed into the fireplace and she watched as it lit up upon incineration. She awkwardly chuckled, thinking that that smallest bit of warmth that the ignited paper had provided was the only help that Lux ever even kind of contributed. He'd claimed to have joined SOLDIER so that he'd be able to send them gil after their mother had passed away, but they'd never seen a single one.

She'd caught the saddened eyes of her youngest sibling, on the verge of shedding heavy tears. "Come here." She sighed and reached her arms out, motioning with her fingers. Sille nearly fell into her open arms as she started sobbing. The older girl's arms closed around the small frame, whispering small reassurances to her and rocking her gently.

_We're going to be alright...what does this really change, anyway?_ At least it was confirmed. A small fact that she'd known for quite a while: they were on their own.

000

Lucille would be alright; she was sure of this. It had been three years since the death of their brother, and she'd grown up so much during that time, albeit forcefully. _My sister WILL be fine..._ After all, she had plenty of friends that she spent most of her time with and was almost never alone. Beautiful girls didn't tend to stay in one spot for too long, and Sille had never been anything other than beautiful. Her smile was charming and not in the least bit forced. Thankfully she had not inherited Lucrecia's cynicism.

As Lucrecia had predicted, her decision to join Shinra wasn't a favored one. She'd been offered an internship my the head of the science department for being the top student in her grad class. Sille had pointed out that in the past, her older sister had always referred to the monopoly as 'pretentious' and 'shamelessly ignorant', especially since for a Exotic Biology AP she'd had to submit a thesis for the mid-term. Long story short, it might have been a little _too_ exotic.

"As if I was really trying to impress them," she'd muttered to herself while reading the unforgiving critical reviews.

_Liar._

"I won't be far away, and I'll be able to come back on the weekends. It's not right away; there's still five more months until graduation. I'll make sure you have everything you need."

"We were supposed to move back to Junon," Sille pouted. "What happened to getting out of here?"

"If I don't do this, Sille, we'll be stuck here forever."

"They'll make you sign a contract. You will be stuck here forever!"

Lucrecia started to argue, but she'd lost this one. It was just an internship, but Shinra didn't trust just anyone. If your internship didn't work out, you become a receptionist or a janitor, but company resignation was never an option. It didn't change anything. She just didn't see any other way.

They both knew it. No one lived in the slums because they wanted to, and for the past twelve years, she'd watched a generation of her neighbors try - and fail - time after time to be able to afford something different. Most gave up eventually.

Lucrecia knew how lucky they were, and had tried many times to make Lucille recognize it, too. They had been fortunate that no one had been paying close enough attention to know that they'd been without a guardian for most of that time, and that teachers just always assumed that Mother Crescent was a homebody and not an active participant in their education affairs. Had they failed to keep that secret, they'd have been thrown into the crudest foster home or orphanage and then there would have been no chances for changing things at all.

Sille was the same age now that Lucrecia had been when she'd become the head of the house, and much more resourceful in every way that mattered. She would not be alone. She will have everything that she will ever need, and one day, she will get out of this treacherous city for good. That is everything now.

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><p>Thank you for reading.<p> 


	2. 1-1 Seize the Day

1~1. Seize the Day

000

_"Newborn life replacing all of us, changing this fable we live in_  
><em> No longer needed here so where do we go?"<em>

_-Avenged Sevenfold, Seize the Day_

000

There'd only been a few other times she'd been to the upper plate before. It was early morning and the sun hadn't risen yet, though the city was already very much awake. It was officially the first day of her Shinra internship.

The Shinra Building sat at the hub of the city, the monumental structure towering over absolutely everything else. It was definitely apparent that the architect meant to give it a lasting impression. Through the four sets of double doors on the front of the building was a spacious interior that was at the very least overwhelming. The first floor was breathtaking. Two staircases stole the main focus of the lobby, turning and disappearing into the second floor. In the center, there was a big glass sign behind a desk that was part of a fountain lit up with several tinted lights, making the water look multiple shades of blue and purple. Behind that, a line of busy elevators dinged as passengers exited and entered.

Lucrecia felt dizzy walking to the front desk as the scenery around her was beginning to feel surreal. She'd recently realized that this is what she'd worked damn near half of her life for, and now that she was finally here, she'd almost felt like turning around and running the hell out the door. _No, there's a reason you're here..._ _Shinra had an asset that they no longer have because of you, and you mustn't forget about Lucille. _The receptionist greeted her with a smile, but before she could ask the embarrassing question of where to go, she spotted him.

Professor Gast Faremis's grin could be seen clear across the lobby; it beamed as he trotted over to her. "Doctor Crescent! It's good to see you again! Please, right this way." The older man escorted her into an elevator before mashing some buttons on the inside panel, and holding a card underneath a red scanner. It beeped in confirmation. The elevator was tubular with glass walls, it ascended quickly and Midgar shrank underneath them.

The man at her side took a deep breath."The sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth floors are where the labs are. You'll need a keycard, as that's a restricted area reserved for the department. The tourist hoi-polloi isn't permitted beyond floor sixty. We're special." He smiled that beaming grin again and winked at her.

By the time they'd reached the near top of the building, Lucrecia was in complete awe. Midgar was allegedly the biggest industrial structure on the planet and here she was at the very top of it all. People could still be seen, commuting and walking around, running their errands and conforming to their busy schedules. They looked so trivial, like tiny little bugs. This must be what President Shinra saw every day.

The elevator dinged when it finally came to a stop and the doors separated to reveal a long white hallway. If Dr. Gast hadn't had a firm hand on her arm, she would've for sure been frozen to that spot, indefinitely fixated on the ant people.

The area had been very white, the hallways seemingly breaking off into every which way. They followed the main one until they'd reached an open area with white tables and computers, and huge versions of lab equipment with more computers and technology than she'd ever seen in one space. The ceiling was lined with metal catwalks that she guessed led up to the next floor. The 68th floor only looked a little bit different, containing even more computers and less classrooms. A control room for the huge incubator sat at the middle of the metal catwalks.

They entered a room with a circle of scientists hovering over a table. A man stood at the center of the table, clearly giving some kind of presentation. About ten other men holding clipboards stood around the first row surrounded the table, the pencils in their hands diligently scribbling each time the instructor spoke. The audience looked up before the presenter had noticed the newcomer, some faces doing a double-take.

"Gentlemen, Professor Hojo. May I introduce you to the newest student of our department, Doctor Lucrecia Crescent."

A series of greetings emerged from the group followed by low mutters, some of which she could hear. She was sure she caught "girl", "so young", "how did" and "won't last".

Gast gently escaped from a grip that she unconsciously had on his arm. She mumbled an apology. "If you would kindly excuse me, Doctor. I must finish some things." Without another word, Professor Gast left the room, closing the door behind him.

The silence in the room was almost tangible as Lucrecia turned to the man who was the infamous Professor Hojo. Professor Hojo was tall and meticulously dressed in a perfectly pressed white labcoat and black pants that offered a dramatic contrast. He had long black hair that was tied back in a messy ponytail with strands that strayed along either side of his face. He wore round glasses that were only about the size of his eyes. He was young, no older than thirty, which was surprising considering the way people talked about him. She'd expected him to be older.

He was glowering at her now for whatever reason. Lucrecia just offered an awkward smile and the older man scoffed, turning back to his class. He'd dismissed them, never taking his weighted gaze off of her.

It took a few minutes for the group to leave, shuffling messily out into the narrow hallway. Once the door had clicked closed, she'd turned back to find Hojo still staring at her. He folded his hands behind his back and strode toward her.

He continued to stare at her for what felt like forever before he finally spoke. "Crescent, is it?"

"Lucrecia." _Doctor... _

"That wouldn't be the same Lucrecia Crescent that submitted the obscure and ludicrous text to the company for review, would it?"

"It was for a grade, it wasn't meant to be a big deal," she abashedly defended.

"With all that vivid imagination, you must never expect to be taken seriously. What an interesting career choice. This will prove to be a very enlightening year for you, I trust."

The internship program was two years. This probably wasn't an oversight on Hojo's part. "It's an honor to meet you, Professor Hojo." _See. I can lie, too._

The tall scientist dropped his hands to his sides and closed the distance, getting so uncomfortably close that he was practically towering over her. She resisted the urge to take a step back. When he spoke this time, his voice was low and through his teeth. "See to it that you acquaint yourself with the present studies, but I wouldn't get too comfortable here if I were you. Good day." He his hands returned to their original placement behind his back and left the room to skulk down the hall.

Lucrecia sighed. So much for making friends.

000

It didn't take too terribly long to become sort of familiar with the subject matter. From what she'd gathered, they'd been investigating in some environmental disturbances in the Northern Crater. Professor Gast was gone from the building a majority of the time for this reason, though Hojo clearly thought this was little more than a waste of time. Unfortunately for her, this meant he stayed behind, and more often than not she was stuck with him.

Their encounters were brief, usually only consisting of scowls from the hallway or the occasional chauvinistic remark. Lucrecia had even swallowed her pride on one occasion and went to the professor with a question that she'd already known the answer to, thinking it would make him feel superior and perhaps back off of her a little bit. The man had instead offered no help and the annoying encounters continued.

She was able to return home on the weekends when it was practical. She'd make sure Lucille had everything she needed and she'd give her the majority of that week's pay. It wasn't much; Shinra provided housing and essentials, so it was more of an allowance. Lucrecia worried about the amount, but her sister had not seemed to be malnourished or unkempt in the least. The rest of the gil Lucrecia had decided to hold on to so they could get a head start on savings.

Intern work, as she'd expected, was tedious. Most of her time was spent organizing file cabinets and entering or updating data into the computers. It was ironically secretarial. Keeping up with Gast kept her busy and was more than a full time job sometimes keeping up with the tornado that was his inspiration. He hated organizing himself, and wasn't very good at it even when he did make the effort. He would grow frustrated and mutter apologies, and she would forgive him and take over. He was a brilliant man, and brilliance wasn't always orderly.

Classes and research were simple to keep on top of, as they all seemed to mesh together. This allowed the weeks to turn to months until she'd lost track of the day count after a hundred.

For being a company with a two year internship program, different faces seemed to come and go rather quickly. The rumor was that Hojo held most of that influence. A popular case seemed to be a young anthropologist who'd recently disappeared for a variety of rumored reasons.

"I don't know why he didn't make it," one of the biotechnologist students deliberated to her one day. "His grades were almost as good as yours."

Lucrecia just shook her head, not bothering to look up from the book she'd been studying. "Grades don't matter. The board didn't say why?"

"No... but they said he was a good scientist."

"They used those words?"

"Yeah!"

Lucrecia winced. "Ouch."

"That's a bad thing?"

"Sometimes, saying something is what it is means it is what it isn't, because if it really is, there'd be no reason to say that it is... It would just be that, and it would go without saying."

"That doesn't make any sense."

She flipped a page, turning her attention back to her textbook. "It's like... joining a beauty contest to be told that you have a wonderful personality. It's not mean per se, but if it's the only thing that can be said about you, it's not a good thing."

"Oh..." The blonde looked to the floor and shifted uncomfortably for a few seconds before he turned out the door. Lucrecia had gathered the impression that possibly the same thing had been said about him, and she then expected the familiar pang of guilt. It didn't come. She didn't see the nameless blonde again after that.

000

She was relieved to have Professor Gast back after his two-month escapade to the Northern Crater. It wasn't the same place without him, even if his enthusiasm could be a little overwhelming at times. He'd caught her in the computer lab one day and he shut the door behind him.

"What do you know about the Ancients, Doctor?" His eyes were dancing and he had a smirk on his face that he'd failed to suppress.

"That they were an extraordinary race that could access the powers of the planet... more or less... and that they're mostly extinct now." But only because they all went insane and brutally slaughtered each other, wiping out the thousands that remained after an enigmatic pandemic had broken out. No one knew the reason. She wasn't sure whether to mention that part or not.

Gast smiled wider, or had just stopped trying to hide it in the first place. "But the specimen itself is truly ancient; it had been there for quite some time before I happened along. You so often hear rumors that some blood of the Cetra blood lines still spread thin through the planet, but this being is so unadulterated... I have an inkling this is something significant inside this stratum, so much so that it could possibly expand our knowledge of these creatures and perhaps even discover secrets of their mysterious history!" The excitement in his eyes grew with every word.

She gave him a strange look. "Sorry, 'the specimen'? Did I miss something?"

"Oh! Yes! I found something. I forgot to mention that part! I found something in the Northern Crater and it is exceptional! It will unlock the secrets of the Promised Land!"

The Promised Land... She suppressed a massive internal eye roll, but maintained her vaguely professional demeanor. "Is that so?"

"You're possibly wondering why I am sharing all of this with you." Lucrecia shrugged, and Gast smiled to continue. "I've submitted these findings to the company and I've requested assistance gathering the specimen, and to necessitate a nearby Mako reactor. Of course, we'll need a competent, knowledgeable team for the investigation to accompany myself and Professor Hojo, so we were discussing it... and your name came up."

She couldn't help but laugh. "I'll bet it did. Did he tell you I'd make a fine receptionist?"

"He recommended you for the Project." Gast kept a serious expression.

Someone might have dropped a ton of boulders on her head just then, or a field of chocobos might have trampled the walls down and blasted through the other side leaving feathers everywhere. A volcano could have erupted and the Planet could have divided from right underneath her feet. All of these things would have gone unnoticed, because they wouldn't have been the strangest thing she'd heard of all day. She must have stared at him for over several seconds before finally responding. "What?"

"Of course I was considering you anyway, he just beat me to it! It would mean you're internship would end, but you would still get severance pay, and we'd just have to start the paperwork-" As he continued talking, Lucrecia's mind raced off into the thing she couldn't wrap around. She replayed his offer in her mind as if she'd missed something crucial. _But, Hojo hates me..._ "If you'll accept, that is. We'd be privileged to have you on board with this."

"I really don't know-"

"You don't have to decide right away. Take the rest of the week off and think about it." He started to walk away, his loud voice booming as it became increasingly more distant echoed down the hall. "But I strongly urge you to day yes! I have a good feeling about this, Doctor. Groundbreaking discoveries! If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission! Seize the day, my dear!"

"Okay..." She said softly, even though he couldn't hear her anymore. She hadn't remembered standing, or backing up to where she was completely across the room until she crashed into the wall of cork bulletin boards. She felt around for the handle, realizing after an embarrassingly long second that the door had been open the entire time. She exited the room on her third try.

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><p>Thank you for reading.<p> 


	3. 1-2 Thoughts That Count

1-2. Thoughts That Count

000

_"I reach to the sky and call out your name_

_Oh please let me trade. I would."_

_The Offspring, So Far Away_

000

It was apparent that she should have been much more excited about being the first female to ever become an official Shinra employee to hold higher than a receptionist position. She was glad that her instructors had been pleased with her efforts. She was thankful for the opportunity, though she couldn't help but be the slightest bit put off when they mentioned her gender with her congratulations.

There was just one thing that bothered her; It seemed too easy. She hadn't put hardly any of what she would consider to be extra work into the internship, and found it disturbing that if it were so simple to master the curriculum and impress the head of the department that more people weren't included. This was also the same company that had ridiculed and invalidated her previously submitted theories... To add insult to injury, the Shinra board members accused her of being insane in so many words. So what had happened? What had changed so much that all of a sudden she was now worthy of becoming part of their vital research team?

_It seems too easy._

She'd asked Gast this a few times, and he would always tell her not to be silly or sell herself short. It would be followed by a motivational ego stroke and that would be that.

But that contract, though.

She remembered how the pen felt so heavy in her hand that it felt like it did most of the pushing as she scrawled her signature on what was the official Shinra contract. Was this it? Was she on the other side now? Property of Shinra, Inc. until the day she died? She knew the answer, and perhaps it was better to not think about it. Conveniently, she had a place in her mind to store the things that were better not thought about.

Lucille had taken the news much better than Lucrecia could have anticipated. The Shinra employment had so often in the past been fodder for heated arguments where nobody won.

Her severance pay was to be over forty-thousand gil, and she'd offered to make sure Sille made it to Junon Harbor comfortably before she left, but the younger declined. She'd suggested that upon Lucrecia's return that they would go together instead. She wasn't going to immediately mention that that idea might not be an option.

They'd stayed up that night talking until well into the new morning, much like they had when they were little and before Lucrecia had taken over the same provider role that seemed to cause their relationship to strain. She couldn't help but think that this might be the last night ever, just like this. Tomorrow she would be a different person.

"We should celebrate! I got us something!" Sille came back from the kitchen carrying a bottle of red wine.

Lucrecia's eyes narrowed at the younger girl. "You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to let you get drunk in this house."

Sille just grinned. "This," she shook the bottle. "Won't get me drunk, trust me."

The older sister was given the impression that the knowledge was from firsthand experience. Lucrecia's glare hardened. "After all the effort I've put into not letting you become _that_ kid..." Sille was a good kid, but she did have the misfortune of growing up in the slums, and some of the consequences were inevitable. She sighed, conquered. "Go get us some glasses."

They'd laid on the two twin beds of the second floor. It might have been after the third glass of wine when Lucrecia had given up her half-attempt to demonstrate some sort of protective authority figure, and Sille hadn't missed the transition. Lucrecia in that state had opened up on what had really happened to Lux, and that it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

She'd been honest about her mother's many episodes, and even though she misses her mother every single say, the woman had definitely not made life after her demise easy. She explained why they were still paying gil on places and things that didn't exist anymore, and why they had to try so hard to keep away from SOLDIERs and MPs. _We moved to a great place for that_, she thought sardonically.

She'd told Sille that she'd met her younger sister's biological father, that she would not have liked him very much anyway. In spite of herself, she told her that if his strange genes were any type of dominant, she'd better be very careful with the colorful liquid they'd been luxuriously quenching upon or she might end up liking it way too much like he had.

After finishing the bottle off, she'd even told her about her fateful encounter at Junon Harbor.

"That never happened!" The younger girl laughed.

"Swear to Gods it did."

It was the longest consecutive period of time they'd spent in the same room since she could remember. At some point she'd found her sister's head in her lap just like she'd done when she was younger, and hands stroked her light hair instinctively. After a long silence she'd thought the girl had gone to sleep until she spoke with almost no fatigue in her voice.

"So... that's how all of Shinra found out you were crazy. You wrote a paper about shiny black stuff," Sille giggled.

"It was for a grade," she groaned for the thousandth time. "And it was my own interpretation; of course it would seem obscure to anyone else."

"It didn't seem obscure to Doctor Valentine..." The girl shifted positions, laying on her stomach now with her head in her hands, propped up by her elbows. "Cresh... What ever happened with that anyway? Are you going to finally tell me?"

"No... I told you about that already."

"No you haven't... you didn't ever talk about it."

_Have I really kept this much from her?_ "I don't like to."

"You've never tried. It might help, you know."

She took a deep breath.

000

_It was four o'clock on a Friday; class was over. The peers around her squealed their excitement, for they'd have the entire weekend to party and be otherwise irresponsible before they'd have to come back. The crowd flowed out the door while Lucrecia was gathering her books. She always seemed to be the last one out. The instructor at the front of the room was giving her a warm smile, as the brunette started her way out of the room, the man stood up and spoke. "Miss Crescent, may I have a word?"_

_Lucrecia Crescent wore her hair down that day and it draped over her shoulders and flowed down to her waist. She threw her backpack over her shoulder and stopped at Doctor Valentine's desk, pushing the irritating strands behind her shoulders. "What is it?"_

"_I was doing a little bit of research. I came across your report on Omega." _

_The girl glared at him for a moment, and then preceded her advance to the door, not wanting to hear for the countless time that the entire thing was nonsense. It didn't hurt her feelings anymore that no one believed her, and she was normally very reluctant to admit that it ever hurt anyway. It wasn't even that they had ridiculed her in front of nearly the entire student body, either. Simply, she was just rather tired of hearing it. _

"_Wait, Lucrecia!" Humoring him, and maybe it was the use of her first name, the young woman stopped and turned to face him with an unamused glare. The instructor cleared his throat. "I want to help you."_

"_Doctor, please." _

"_I want to help you find Chaos." _

_Her eyes met his, searching for any signs that he might be teasing her. They were sincere and an odd color for eyes. Her own green set narrowed. "Why?"_

"_Because I believe you."_

_Her time in Doctor Valentine's class was spent mostly doodling on blank pieces of notebook paper. She did listen to him; the man had some crazy theories, and hardly ever taught anything that could be referenced in the books that were required for the course. Lucrecia didn't mind that, she liked his originality. When he got into his lectures, he sounded so passionate and fanatical, it reminded her of her own beliefs… which in turn reminded her of the rejection. "No one believes me. And they shouldn't. I made the whole thing up anyway. It was for a grade. Can I go now?"_

_The man's smile faded some, but still stayed on his face with fewer laugh lines than before. "There's a cave quite far from here. It can't be accessed easily. I believe deep within the cave is where Chaos is destined to awaken. I was close by one week while on an assignment and I got close to the mountains near the cave. The soil was… strange. Potent. Something extraordinary resides near, I'm very sure. I want to investigate. It would only be necessary to bring you with me."_

_The young woman gave him a skeptical look. "You're serious."_

"_I hope you say yes." His smile was sincere, and also something else._

"_I can't... I... it's dangerous. Stay away from it." She darted out the door before the man could say another word._

000

"And then what happened?"

"I'd spent the next day at the library in Sector 8. He found me there, and asked again. When I said no, that Monday after class he'd asked again. I don't know how many times he'd asked. He was relentless."

"You told him you weren't interested, and he asked you more times? Why did he push it so much?"

Lucrecia shook her head. "He must have known deep down that... I really wanted to. I don't know, really."

"And then?"

"And then..."

000

_The ground seemed to ripple like a wave. She'd remembered this before, and her heart sped up. She suggested to her mentor that they leave immediately, even though moments earlier she'd been so excited...but all of a sudden it was like she'd walked in on someone who never wanted company. She felt the power flood beneath her. It was apparent that Dr. Valentine hadn't feel the same tension she had, but he was understanding of it and seemed to respect her intuition. At least, he didn't call her crazy._

_Upon leaving, Lucrecia fell against the rock of the cave's exterior. "I'm sorry...I couldn't get it. I couldn't do it."_

_Doctor Valentine put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It is essential to trust oneself. It is enough that we have seen it with our own eyes."_

_It wasn't enough before. Lucrecia had seen it with her own eyes, and today wasn't the first time. It wasn't enough, not at all. She turned around. "I can't... we came all this way..." The doctor just nodded. Lucrecia closed her eyes and growled in frustration. "Doctor... um. I'm sure this is going to sound really strange, but could I have a moment, please?" _

_"Absolutely. I will wait here." _

000

"I collected the sample," she said, monotonously.

"What? How?"

"I don't remember, and it's not important. But you know what happens next."

"Come on... You're almost there."

She sighed.

000

_"Don't you think you're taking things much too quickly?"_

_Her fingers flew across the keyboard like they were possessed by something. Her face fixed on the screen externalized the same. She ignored the Professor, who was slowly pacing back in forth; probably wearing a path in the wood if she'd left him too much longer. Regardless, she had to have this submitted as quickly as possible. She will force those yuppie suits will eat their words by the end of that day if it was the last thing she ever did._

_"It is rather beautiful, isn't it?" Doctor Valentine mused, pausing his impatient exercise to admire the elusive subject. _

_Lucrecia's eyes snapped up and out of her delirium, and she stood to face the specimen. "Say... that again."_

000

Sille's eyes were wide and intent. "Then?"

"I got too close, and the sample lost control. Broke through the glass, Doctor Valentine pushed me out of its way, and it got him instead of me."

"...That's not your fault."

"You haven't been paying attention," she said bitterly.

"Only to everything you said, and what happened to that Professor was not your fault. I guess I missed that part, because to me it sounds like he pressured you into helping him, and when shit hit the fan-"

"Watch your language," Lucrecia said nonchalantly.

"Cresh, he did the decent thing and didn't let you die because of his dumb decision to go after the thing you told him was dangerous from the start. Do you seriously feel guilty that he didn't let you die?"

"I don't know. Maybe? Maybe I was supposed to. Maybe Chaos was trying to kill me instead. Maybe it was inappreciative of the attention it would undoubtedly receive from the publish? It was never supposed to be taken from the Planet, and perhaps it thought it could use my lifeless body as a vessel back to the Lifestream? I never did ask its permission to broadcast its existence all over the world..." The older girl watched inebriated patterns form on the ceiling of all possible explanations for what had happened that fateful day. The only thing she was positive of was that it had been her mistake that designed the outcome.

"Shut up... you talk too much."

Lucrecia's brow furrowed and she looked over to find Sille with her eyes closed, laying on her back on the bed with her feet in mid-step up the wall. The empty bottle in her hand was on its way to the floor; sat up and grabbed the bottle, setting it on the night table before crawling into the second twin bed to resume staring at the ceiling.

Her mind was still on the late professor, but it was increasingly easier to push the feelings deep down inside, well beneath the core of anything that never mattered; she'd had plenty of practice. Lux would certainly be proud.

Shinra had popped into her mind again rather forcefully, but it hadn't brought on the same dread that it reigned over her earlier. Perhaps she had Sille's celebration method to thank for that. One persistent, nagging thought spun over and over.

_It just seems way, way too easy._

* * *

><p>Thank you very much for reading.<p> 


	4. 1-3 Where the Righteous Ones Roam

1-3. Where the Righteous Ones Roam

000

_I was unconscious, half asleep  
>The water is warm 'til you discover how deep<br>I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall  
>It's a long way down to nothing at all<em>

_U2 - Stuck In a Moment_

000

She walked fast down the hallway of the aircraft, fixing her ponytail as she strode. At the end of the hall, there was a large room with an entire wall of window that wrapped around the end of the airship. She found Professor Gast sitting at a bar that sat in the middle of the room, and he was sipping from a teacup. If his facial expressions were any indication, it was full of something that had never been tea. As soon as the hazel eyes noticed her, he began flashing that blinding smile. "Doctor Crescent, you're just in time. We're about to land outside of Nibelheim! You slept for almost the whole trip, Doctor. You must have been tired."

She just nodded. She was. Preparing had taken a lot of energy, and worrying about Sille took even more. She'd apparently managed to sleep through the entire duration of the six hour airship flight. She took a seat at the stool next to him and politely declined a drink from the barkeep.

Gast beamed a fabulous smile and put his arm around her. "Are you ready to make some great history, my dear?"

A loud cough thundered from behind, startling her. She turned around to see a sneering Hojo. "Any fool with a degree nowadays thinks they're destined to reflect greatness and fortune. That's not to say that any one of them would have any design as to what greatness actually is. When I was an intern-"

Lucrecia turned back to the barkeep. "Know what... I think I will take that drink now, thank you."

Gast raised a finger to the young attendant, who was making an odd face trying not to smile. "Splendid! Make that another, as well. Hojo, get over here. I have something I'd like to say."

Hojo made a groaning sound, but pulled a chair up to sit front and center so they formed a scientist triangle. Gast shoved the third drink into his colleague's hand, who maintained the disinterested facial expression and occasionally shifted in his stool. It wasn't an insecure gesture; she'd gotten the impression that it was more like he was physically forcing himself to sit though whatever Gast had to say.

"As you both well know, this discovery is big. While I did have the part in stumbling across this magnificent life form, I could absolutely not have done this alone." She could almost hear Hojo's eyes roll. Gast obliviously went on. "We, as a team, will be the unparalleled success of this discovery. Seriously. Great things are about to happen for the Planet, and all of its inhabitants. Professor Hojo, Doctor Crescent, I can't think of two other people I would rather share this tremendous honor with. Friends," he raised his glass to his colleagues, and Lucrecia mirrored him. Hojo held his out, lacking a certain enthusiasm. "Here's to us, Shinra's finest. The smartest people on the planet! Cheers!"

They clinked their glasses together, and each took a drink. To her surprise, Hojo cooperated, and she was so proud that she could have stood up right then and given him a pat on the back._ Thank you for letting Gast have this moment, and not ruining it by being yourself_; _that must have been really difficult for you,_ she would have said. She'd have to remember to recognize this effort later.

He did disband from the circle first, going back to his original spot leaning against the wall. Lucrecia tapped the top of her thighs with her fingers anxiously, and Gast went back to drinking whiskey out of his teacup.

Lucrecia smiled awkwardly. "So, we're here, right? Why aren't we moving?"

Gast turned around in his barstool again. "Hovering is more like it. It shouldn't take too much longer; they're almost ready for us."

_They?_ Lucrecia leaned in her stool toward the window to investigate. Four jet-black vehicles liked up right outside the small town in perfect order, and residents were looking out their windows and coming out of their houses to see what was going on. A few didn't look happy. It seemed Shinra couldn't go anywhere without making sure to cause a commotion. So much for arriving incognito.

"Who else is here? I thought that it was just supposed to be us."

Gast took another sip. "Those are the Turks... Not all of them are staying; just a few, I believe. They're our bodyguards. They're here to ensure our safety for the duration of the project."

Her brow furrowed. "Our...bodyguards? Is this a dangerous project?"

"Of course not!" Gast said immediately. "Of course, things can go wrong if we're not careful I'd imagine...as with nearly anything else. The project itself is not dangerous. The Turks... I've explained this incorrectly."

"They're here," Hojo interrupted, "to protect the _precious_ assets of Shinra." He finished the liquid that was in his glass.

Jenova, too, probably. That made more sense. The Turks were an intelligence agency, and it was very unlikely that Shinra would send their top men just to be a few scientists' personal meat-shields from bad guys, whether it was an actual concern or theoretical. In her opinion, it also might have been a way to give the project more bravado than it really had. Never without style, and the president always seemed to manage to make a pretty big spectacle of even the tiniest affairs. Must be compensating for something. Why bother keeping anything 'top secret' if everyone is going to know something is happening anyway?

Gast went on, possibly sensing her lingering confusion. "There have been reports of vicious creatures on the way to the reactor near Neibelheim. Their protection most definitely is necessary."

She just nodded, looking down at the brown liquid and began tilting her glass, causing it to slosh around the sides. "The Turks... I thought most of their missions were more scandalous than virtuous."

"Well, yes and no. Typically, yes, but I'm told this is the Elite team... I believe they deal with more exclusive matters. I do know what you mean, though. Rumors of some unmentionable activity have really spread around Midgar since the first reactor was built."

Hold the phone. "Wait...the Elite team? Doesn't that seem just a bit excessive...?"

Gast just shrugged and took another sip. Lucrecia decided to follow his lead, and ended up finishing her glass. She was fully aware that it wouldn't do any good to obsess over something she couldn't control, but she knew herself well enough to know that chances were good she would end up obsessing anyway. _I just need a few minutes of nothing but positive thinking_. She wiggled her glass at the strapping young man at the counter and he nodded, and poured her another glass of positive thinking.

000

The little town was quiet and quaint, consisting of a circle of wooden a-frame houses with a tall wooden well directly in the center. Beyond the circle, the mansion in all of its glory, loomed over the village. Past that still, the glorious Mt. Nibel.

Lucrecia closed her eyes as the sun came out from behind a cloud, and she almost gasped. The feeling of natural sunlight on her skin was overwhelming. Her skin soaked up the natural warmth for the first time in years that made up a decade and then some. It was odd the things one takes for granted when they don't live in pollution under a massive steel plate. She knew then that she must have been suffocating under it all this time, and the wave of relief that the overcame her was extraordinary.

_Real, fresh air. I thought it didn't exist anymore._

The mansion was beautiful. There were two floors, and over a dozen bedrooms. It had a grand piano and a garden room, and massive stained glass windows that in the right light painted the floors with humongous splatters of color. Every single room seemed to characterize the theme of a different novel genre.

The basement was only accessible by a door in one of the second floor bedrooms, and then down a winding spiral of stairs that seemed to go on much longer than two stories. The strange staircase ended before it had reached the ground floor, which she quickly discovered was more ground than actual floor, and a ladder was used to complete the way down.

The basement was incredible. She'd have her own small lab while Gast and Hojo would share a larger one. Off to the side was an equipment room that attached to a small dusty library that she'd quickly skimmed through, discovering a lot of books about ancients and cell biology. She recognized a few of the titles, but not many of the others. She felt a flare of excitement. She could see herself spending hours upon hours here reading all the material. The subjects seemed awfully specific to the project, though they were curiously layered with thick dust as if the mansion had been their home for a long while.

The lighting in the entire basement gave the place an almost ominous atmosphere that she'd immediately appreciated. It was going to be a relief to not be in another florescent prison for an indefinite amount of time.

There were the two labs, the library, and one more room with a large wooden door that she hadn't been able to open. These rooms had been spread out along a hallway that looked like an underground cavern, complete with a dirt floor.

_I think they need to fire the designer, or at least issue him a drug test. _

She was startled by Professor Gast's voice echoing thunderously down the long tower. "Doctor Crescent! Come up here for a moment."

"Be right there," she said softly.

Up was harder than down when it came to the spiraling stairs. She had one hand clung onto the stone wall the entire time she was mastering the uneven splintering wooden stairs in her heels. When she emerged from the basement stairwell, there had been three figures; two more than she had been expecting. Hojo had skulked off somewhere apparently, which was completely expected. Doctor Gast was near the door with one of the men. He noticed her presence after no longer than a second, and he smiled. "Doctor Crescent, welcome back!" And with that, him and the blonde blue-suited man disappeared into the hallway.

"Those stars are going to kill me." She was wiping the dust off her hands on her skirt and looked up. "I suppose the mansion was built... before...elevators..." She trailed off, something else stealing all of her attention.

Her eyes turned back to the remaining person and she felt her heart stop. He had shirt black hair that was parted on one side and reached down to jaw, beautifully framing his face. He had sharp, handsome features, and eyes that were slightly brighter than the ones they'd resembled, but there was no mistaking them.

"Vincent Valentine reporting for duty, ma'am. I've been assigned your protection." He stood up perfectly straight and wore a warm smile.

_Oh my god. What... This isn't happening right now. I'm still asleep on the airship. The mansion isn't a creepy haunted house, and Grimoire's son is not my bodyguard. Any second now, Gast will turn into the Algebra teacher I hated from high school, and I will realize quite suddenly that I'd forgotten to put on clothes before coming to work today. Wake the hell up now._

Good gods was he gorgeous.

"Why…" She whispered under her breath, still deep within her trance. "Why would they send his…" Those sadistic bastards. Could this have possibly just been a neglectful oversight? Absolutely not. Shinra knew exactly what had happened to Grimoire; albeit they claimed to believe she was not entirely at fault, this was just too cruel to be an oversight. Was this sick revenge for trying way too hard to substantiate the Chaos Theory? Had they hated it that much? She was suddenly sorry, and would promise to never bring it up again if they'd just stopped this right now and let her go home.

She'd tried to remember during the brief time she'd spent with Grimoire if he ever made mention of a son who worked for Shinra.

_"Tell my son that I'm sorry..." _

Those were his last words before he faded into the Lifestream, and left the young lady with the cruel burden of having to one day face the son of a man she'd foolishly gotten killed.

She remembered having the opportunity at his memorial; she was told that his son was to attend, and from that particular source, she learned that he was 'super hot'. She'd passed up the opportunity to attend, but not because she'd been busy. There was no way that this man could have been that same mentioned person. It wasn't the right word for him at all. This man was beautiful.

She felt sick. Her mind raced with a thousand different appropriate responses to choose from, but then just as quickly it went completely blank. She didn't know exactly how long she'd been standing there.

"Excuse me? Are you alright?" Concern was shining through those magnificent red eyes. Did he not recognize her? Did he have no idea who she was? Why was he being so kind?

_No. I think I can say goodbye to 'alright' for a while._

Lucrecia swallowed. "Yes, I'm very sorry, it's just... I've never met anyone from the Turks before." The man nodded, but didn't relax the worry. Lucrecia gave her best attempt at a smile. "I'm Lucrecia Crescent. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Valentine."

"The pleasure is mine." He smiled genuinely at her then, and the sight made her light-headed.

_Do you have to be handsome? This is so unfair._

She was aware that this introduction probably didn't go well, but perhaps the man would be kind enough to not make further mention of it. Her hand went to her forehead as she tried to mentally climb her way back down to coherency. The man's doubt returned and his brow gently furrowed. "Doctor Crescent, are you sure you're alright?"

She just nodded, the quick motion made her head swim again. She was fighting to keep from hyperventilating. She focused on her breathing and also a good excuse as to why she's acting like such a moron. "Yes, I... we had a few drinks on the airship. I think they've gone straight to my head, heh..." _Idiot._ "It's lovely to meet you. Please, I beg your pardon." She rushed out of the room in a speed that was not socially appropriate.

She crossed the hall and barged into an empty bedroom that she had earlier claimed as her own and shut the door. She locked it behind her, even though it hadn't made much sense, the motion felt good. She fell against the door and slid down to the ground. Tears were coming, and she fought them with the little energy she had left.

_Push it down_, she urged herself. If Lux could do it every day of his damn life, then surely she can manage for the next few months. Maybe she could even achieve this without the incidental suicide.

_How_, she thought, _how am I ever going to get through this? I am not strong enough. I can't do it._

_Push this down. So his son is here. Who cares? He has no idea who you are-_

_But I do..._

_No! This can't interfere. You've come here with a job to do. Act like a grown-up._

She sobbed in bouts in spite of the effort not to. Afterward, she felt mercifully numb. It was a good opportunity to unpack and go over a few notes so the material would be fresh in her mind for the morning. When her mind would wander back to the Turk, she would pull the reins.

_I am strong enough. This doesn't affect me. He's no one. Just a man. Just a stranger. Not fateful, not even coincidental. This is nothing, feel nothing._

Often, the way out is through, and tomorrow would promise a fresh start.

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading!<p> 


	5. 1-4 Serendipitous Encounter

1-4. Serendipitous Encounter

000

_"I wish for this nighttime to last for a lifetime_  
><em>The darkness around me, shores of a solar sea<em>  
><em>Oh how I wish to go down with the sun..."<em>

_Nightwish - Sleeping Sun_

000

Tomorrow seemed to be taking its time arriving to Nibelheim that night. Once it arrived officially, it came with no meaningful significance of its symbolism as she had hoped earlier, nor had it brought her any assistance with sleep. She watched the long hand tick every single minute of midnight around the face of the wall clock and somehow managed to feel even less tired than when she'd first laid down.

_I'm going to go legit crazy in here. Not the fun kind of crazy where I'd get to chase people with axes, either. I have to get out of this room. I have to get out of this mansion._

She didn't bother donning a jacket, just the plain White tank top and white skirt she'd arrived in. She quickly tied her mass of hair back while slipping on the only shoes she had that were unpacked which regrettably happened to be heels, and made her way down the mansion's creepy creaky hall and down the curved staircase. The moonlight shown through the tall windows, projecting the colorful stained glass window patterns along the floor. Lucrecia opened one of the huge double doors with a soft click and gently closed the heavy thing behind her.

Years in Midgar had robbed her of regular chances to enjoy the Planet, and living above a lifeless ground of dirt and below a thick metal plate could wear at anyone's sanity after a while. It might be the reason that she just felt so completely at peace out here, though the distance away from a certain someone might also be a contribution. Taking a deep breath, she was breathing in real unadulterated fresh air, feeling very serene for the first time in a long time. For now, she didn't have to worry about the Project. She didn't have to think about Grimoire Valentine's son.

After only about five minutes of walking, she couldn't see the lights of Nibelheim or the mansion anymore. This was absolutely fine, for the farther away she'd gotten, the better. It was almost a buzz-kill that eventually she'd have to turn around and go back_. _

_Or maybe not… _

Up ahead a few ten miles or so are the Materia caves Gast had been raving about. Past that was the reactor. She could live there for almost a week before needing any kind of nourishment. She was sure she could find a source of water. When the time came, she could sneak back into the small town unnoticed long enough to buy something to eat. Hopefully it would take a few days to even notice that she wasn't lost in the mansion but not inside at all, and then they will bring in the search troops, but that could take days, even weeks. It would buy her some time.

_Time to do what, exactly?_

Unfortunately, Shinra didn't treat deserters kindly. They were usually considered traitors, and held the same fate. They sent the Turks after them if they fled, otherwise they were shot on sight. Not everyone knew that. Lux had decided to share way too much with her one night after she'd begged him to come back home.

The moonlight through the trees was bright enough to cast shadows on everything around her, giving the entire night setting a surreal kind of glow. The leaves on each of the trees appeared to have silver lining. The noises of night bugs buzzed quietly in the background, and there was a gentle wind that played with a few loose strands of her long hair. With the moisture on the leaves, it looked like some areas of the trees were sparkling ethereally.

If she'd ever seen something more beautiful, it wasn't coming to mind. _Well, not some 'thing', anyway. No! Don't think about him now... _She walked along the worn path until she found an illuminated break in the trees, and she stopped in the spot to look straight up.

There were a million stars, some bright and some huge. They owned the sky, and they knew it. It was easy to get completely lost in the heavens, even while staying completely on the Planet the entire time. _The sea of stars…_

"Sille, I wish you were here to see this," she whispered to herself.

She wasn't sure how long it'd taken to come back to solid ground, but when she did, she decided to start heading back. Living out here forever was a good idea only in her imagination. The idea was disturbingly enticing still, and perhaps it was an idea she would hold onto and reserve for a crisis.

The movement in the bushes was felt more than it was heard, and she quickened her pace. It was late into the night and anyone or anything that had been following likely wasn't intending to be neighborly. Her pace turned into a jog, which then turned into a sprint. She ran until she was out of breath. _How far out had I gone? _No sign of the mansion or the small town anywhere.

"Shit…" Lucrecia almost never cursed out loud, but it seemed appropriate. Whoever claimed she was a genius before this day obviously didn't know she'd try to go hiking in heels. She kicked off the two hindrances and took off again, running much faster on her bare feet. She had the advantage of living somewhere were running away from something chasing her was just as normal as waking up in the morning. It allowed her to easily ignore the occasional pain she'd get from stepping on something a little too sharp.

The noises were gone, but just to be sure Lucrecia turned around and stood still so she could listen closer. Not a sound came except for the perpetual chirping of the insects. Sure whatever was lurking was history now, she turned back around and took a step only to be ambushed by a wild Guard Hound. She shrieked and took off in the opposite direction, straying off the worn path to hopefully slow the pursuer down.

It backfired, only slowing herself down instead. She ran for a short time longer before her legs were growing weak from exhaustion. She tripped over her own feet on the crooked terrain, and went down face first. The ground was wet, and she could feel some of it clinging to her skirt and her skin as she pulled away from the soggy soil.

The moment she thought for sure she was at least a good distance ahead of the animal, she stopped and turned around, making her third mistake of the night. The hound closed the distance in seconds, leapt up into the air and pushed off one tree, and then another, and landed less than two feet in front of her. Lucrecia jumped back and was suddenly against a tree with the huge creature inches away from her face. She was forced down to a crouch with the dog over her. The odor from its breath was strong, the heat numbing her face from where her cheeks had been cold previously. The beast had some shade of blue fur and a long tail coming out of the back of its head, the end of the tail was a flame. The fiend bared his teeth, long lines of saliva hanging on either side of his mouth.

Feeling a rush of adrenaline, Lucrecia reared back her arm and punched the animal as hard as she could manage, connecting on the left side if its face. The monster's face turned slightly from the blow, but recovered too quickly, angrier than before. She rolled to the side, but was met by a second creature. This one was larger, and pink. She scooted back against the tree. A third one squeezed its way between the two. She was surrounded.

This was it. Lucrecia brought her arms up to shield her eyes so at least she wouldn't have to see the inside of the hungry mouths as they closed in for the kill.

The cracks that shot through the night were deafening and they caused her to jump with each one. They were quick and consecutive.

The next thing she heard immediately after was a yelp from one the beasts as it was falling away from her, joining the two others she'd known about and fourth and fifth ones she hadn't. The first blue monster let out a humbling shriek before she dropped her arms and watched as the five Guard Hounds returned to the Planet. Her head turned sharply in the direction of the fire.

Her heart pounded in her chest. After what felt like longer than it probably was, Vincent emerged from the trees, holstering his gun. He still had his Turk uniform on, though it was missing the jacket, and the white shirt had been untucked. The contrast of the white mixed with the moonlight made Vincent's skin look almost platinum. Without the jacket, his gun was visible on his hip.

_They've already sent the Turks after me?! I haven't even been gone for an hour!_

He was focused on her with strict eyes. The genuine apprehension in them stirred something in her. "Are you hurt?" All she could do was shake her head in response. "Good. Now would you mind explaining what were you thinking?" His tone was concerned, albeit harsh.

"I uh. I couldn't sleep, so I… thought I'd see the stars." It sounded so juvenile even as she said it. She had no defense.

"All the way out here?" He was breathing heavily, but it didn't alter his voice or speech at all.

"Were you... following me?" Lucrecia's chest heaved, greatly impairing her attempt to sound outraged.

"I am your _bodyguard_," he replied, spitting that last word out like it meant something nasty.

Lucrecia winced. "You really didn't have to do that."

The man cocked a perfect eyebrow. "I have recently witnessed impeccable evidence that substantiates otherwise." He looked at her in disbelief. Not cocky, but still irritating.

She fought to keep her voice even. "Oh, that? That was nothing. I had it all under control." She was smoothing out her skirt with her hands, trying in vain to look less pathetic. The mud everywhere didn't allow her any bravado, but at least she was still too relieved to feel too embarrassed.

"Is that so? It really did not appear that way where I was standing."

"Yeah. I actually like to let them get really close and make them think they're winning and then just wail on them like a ferocious animal. They never know what hit them. Ah... " _Moron_. The embarrassment was most certainly making a hell of an entrance now. She nervously began trying to pick the drying mud off of herself. "Besides… you're off-duty, why would you care?"

"Because if I let you get killed, all of the other body guards will make fun of me."

Her brows furrowed at him. This took her a minute. "You're joking." It wasn't a question.

"You're correct." His face straightened. "But seriously. It wouldn't look very nice on my record if on the first day of the assignment, my dependant was slaughtered trying to stargaze," he replied.

Lucrecia huffed. "Well, I'm fine. Let's just get back, okay?"

Vincent nodded and extended an arm to help her up, but she stubbornly refused it, using the trunk of the tree to get to her feet instead. She'd finished getting what she could off of her clothes with her hands, silently cursing herself for choosing white of all colors. Once she finished, the Turk motioned for her to lead the way. She started in one direction and then stopped in her tracks, realizing that nothing around looked familiar. How far had those things chased her? She couldn't see the worn path anymore, or any signs of it for that matter. She heard her bodyguard sigh, but to her surprise and relief he saved the lecture he had every right to give at that point and started the way himself.

The moonlight in Vincent's black hair was not possible to ignore, and neither was his perfect composure as he seemed to glide across the uneven forest floor. He avoided branches and obstacles with such sophisticated grace and without so much as a glance to the ground. She watched the muscles in his back flex just slightly as he moved his arms. Her eyes trailed down to his perfect waist and then lower before she could stop herself. She turned away, feeling the temperature rise in her cheeks. Officially everything about him was nauseatingly perfect.

They walked in silence for several minutes.

After a few more minutes of walking, the man stopped short and turned around. Lucrecia felt oddly grateful she'd been paying such close attention to his form, and also glad that she could use this reasoning to justify the fixation. Vincent frowned. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude just then. You worried me, and that isn't something I'm accustomed to dealing with."

"I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to worry you."

_I seem to have a solid knack for running off and getting myself into trouble. I can see why Midgar was a good choice now. To keep me in a cage._

They started their way again. He looked back every dozen steps or so to make sure she still followed close behind until they found the trail again. He then made her take the lead, and she guessed it was so he could keep an eye on her. She felt grateful again, and maybe a little disappointed in spite of herself.

Lucrecia glanced back at him, and she was met with those gorgeous eyes. She struggled to breathe with the lump in her throat. "So… how long have you been a Turk?"

The man stopped his stride for a moment and Lucrecia stopped with him. He was clearly puzzled by her sudden small talk. He seemed to stiffen when she took the extra couple of steps to stand next to him. Noticing this, she took another step back and looked down at her hands that were fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. Vincent's demeanor relaxed slightly. "Seven years." He started walking again, though slower than before.

She was automatically doing the math to guess his age in her head. "You must have been so young."

"I was nineteen when I joined." They were walking side by side now, which made Lucrecia's heart skip.

He was four years older than her. If she had to just go by just his speech and mannerisms, she would have guessed him to be in his fifties. He seemed so serious and matured; not like other men she had met that were close to his age. She got the impression that he reserved a lot of himself, and that made her really want to know so much more about him.

She concentrated on the ground, careful not to step on _or trip over, gods forbid _anything. She didn't have much trust in her own feet at the moment. "Is it what you've always wanted to do?"

"Am I being interviewed?"

"I was just… curious, I guess. I'm sorry." She stopped again, this time looking at the sole of one of her feet. They were muddy, just like the rest of her. Sighing, she glanced back up. Vincent was watching her.

"Don't apologize." He took a breath and smiled. The sight made her head swim and her knees weak. She leaned against a tree she was thankfully next to. The stars had absolutely nothing on Vincent Valentine's smile. "Yes. I always wanted to, ever since I could remember. Aren't you cold?"

How anyone could be cold looking into those magnificent eyes was beyond her. She shook her head.

"You have no shoes on."

That made her smile. Ten points for impeccable observations. "Yes, they were a necessary sacrifice."

"You're going to step on something."

"I'm watching my steps."

"I could carry you," he said.

Lucrecia suddenly looked horrified. "Absolutely not."

Before she knew it, Vincent was laughing. Lucrecia would have been annoyed if it wasn't the most wonderful sound she'd ever heard. His laughter wore off, and she'd immediately wanted it back. "Now I have a question for you." He smiled, and the moonlight caught the beautiful structure of his high cheekbones, allowing his hair to cast perfect shadows along the line of his jaw. Lucrecia felt weak. "Just where did you learn how to run like that? I promise, if you hadn't stopped, I'd have never caught up with you."

_Did he really just compliment me? _Lucrecia felt the heat rise in her cheeks again. "I'm a slums kid. We're always running away from something. The slow ones get caught." She smirked. "Not nearly as handy as your aim, though... what were you, like a mile away? I didn't even know you were behind me."

He flashed another stunning smile and gave her a smug look. "Sharpshooter. At your service. Elite. Best of the best. Thank you very much."

She was giggling before she could stop herself. The tingle feeling that resulted was overwhelming. Before tonight she would swear she wasn't the giggling type.

It was her turn to stop. She'd heard the trickling sound of water nearby, and it seemed like they still had quite a way to go. "Mr. Valentine... would you mind if we took a short break?" He nodded to her, and she rushed to the source of the sound, and Vincent followed.

She knelt down next to the sparkling stream and plunged her hands in, watching the mud dissolve from her fingers. It was absolutely no replacement for a shower, but the cold water was a sweet blessing over her skin. After her fingers were clean, she scooped up water in her hands and washed off her arms, and her face. She glanced at Vincent, who was kneeling over the water himself, running his hands over the tiny rapids. Since he didn't appear to be impatient, she scooped up another handful of water and begun working on her legs. She hissed through her teeth when the water touched her knees, and the water ran off her legs tinted red with blood.

Vincent spotted this immediately. "You're hurt."

Lucrecia shook her head. "Just scraped. It's nothing."

Vincent grabbed his gun and Lucrecia gasped and crawled back from him. "What are you doing?"

"Relax." He stepped over to her and knelt down. He held the weapon over her knee and it glowed a brilliant green. Several wisp-like trails appeared and circled around her attended knee, and then the other one, and once around her head. They disappeared back into the hilt of the gun.

"Amazing," she breathed.

"Materia," he said.

"I've never seen one in action before."

"Do you feel better?"

"Yes," she sighed. "Much. Thank you." She started to get to her feet, and Vincent frowned.

"Take it easy for a moment. You can't tell me you're not tired after all that."

She nodded. "Thank you again, Mr. Valentine."

She sat back down and smoothed out her skirt. Using this time to address her hair situation, she pulled out the band and let it fall on her shoulders. It had gotten ridiculously long almost without her noticing over the years in Midgar. While she was sitting perfectly straight up, the chestnut locks were long enough to reach the ground. She inspected the strands with her hand by running her long fingers through each section. It was just a quick fix; if she were putting in a full effort, it could have taken her hours. Thankfully, most of the mud had missed her hair.

When she was satisfied, she tossed it behind her shoulders and sighed. She glanced to Vincent, who looked away the moment she'd made eye contact. Had he been watching her?

Vincent cleared his throat. "What about you? Have you always wanted to be a scientist?"

She made a face realizing she was not prepared to answer the same question she asked. "Am I a scientist? I swear, it still just does not feel real." She never knew what she wanted to be when she 'grew up'; it was never something she thought about. When she wasn't trying to hold together her broken family, she was busy making sure everyone around her thought she was just as weird as she could possibly be with her talk about bad things that would happen to the Planet, things that she couldn't really prove but she always just somehow knew… A scientist was just the most fitting occupation naturally, though she'd never dreamed that it would be for Shinra.

"No. I haven't always wanted to be a scientist. It just sort of happened that way." In Lucrecia's mind, scientists were old and insane, and always had their own ulterior motives. She wasn't sure if this Jenova Project was going to save the Planet like Gast said it would. Her ulterior motive was always Sille. Get Sille out and away from Midgar, highlighted and underlined.

At least, that's what it used to be.

It was hard to not care tonight. Standing out in the gorgeous moonlight with this amazing gentleman made her want the Planet to last forever just as it was now.

"To be honest…" She zoned out, staring intensely at a rock covered in moss on one side. "I don't really feel like I belong here. I think I'm only here to pretend like I could possibly matter a tiny bit in this huge endeavor to save the world from oblivious imminent destruction." Lucrecia's eyes widened in shock at her own revelation. She looked at the man, shocked. Attempting to pull together some kind of professional composure, she sat up straight. "I didn't mean that. I…uh."

What was it about this man that made her feel like she would tell him anything? She never had this connection with Dr. Valentine; that wasn't it. She normally didn't believe it would ever do her any good to share her feelings. All feelings did were make someone a vulnerable target for ridicule and spite and unnecessarily brutal criticism. She decided long ago that feelings were alright as long as no one else could ever know them. It was different with Vincent, this man she'd known less than six hours. For some reason, she really wanted to open up to him.

Vincent was still smiling, and Lucrecia wondered when this would stop effecting her so intensely. "Don't worry; this conversation isn't going in your employee file. I know exactly how you feel. Identities are the hardest things to find when you're looking for them, but you'll find out." He shifted his position to lean back a bit, using his palms on the ground behind him for support. "You can do anything you want, Doctor Crescent."

She winced at the name he called her. It reminded her that they've only just met and they are not even on a first-name basis yet. "I want for you to call me Lucrecia."

He smiled that mind-numbing smile, and something brightened in his eyes. "You must call me Vincent, then."

"It's a deal."

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading!<p> 


	6. 1-5 Where is the Edge?

1-5. Where is the Edge?

000

_Help, I have done it again_  
><em> I have been here many times before<em>  
><em> Hurt myself again today<em>  
><em> And the worst part is there's no one else to blame<em>

_Sia - Breathe Me_

000

The brook that had babbled on beside them had become white noise in the background. This man that she had felt so strangely comfortable with had not expressed any interest in returning to the mansion, so the notion had been forgotten by her as well. Neither of them noticed when the sun had began to paint its first evidence in the night sky. They'd been lost in each other's stories and the strange companionship that had been new to both of them.

She'd learned a lot about Vincent overnight, including that he had never been married or otherwise involved. She was visibly shocked by this, so he explained that the life of a Turk is often a lonely one. He seemed to express the same surprise when she told him that she'd never been involved with anyone either, though it wasn't her occupation that made it so.

It was almost sunrise by the time they'd made it back to their, for all intents and purposes, home. He'd made her promise not to go into the woods by herself again, and she obliged. They reached the small town of Nibelheim too soon in Lucrecia's opinion. That was the bad thing about good things: they ended eventually.

She'd managed to get a shower and a few hours' sleep before the sun intruded fully into her window. After it was bright even with her eyes closed, she decided it was a good time to get up and get some work done.

The three housekeepers were in the kitchen and they greeted her as she passed by. They'd offered her coffee and she nodded, thanking them profusely when they handed her a white ceramic mug. Coffee she was only just getting used to appreciating. She'd seen the caffeine battles some of her classmates would have before a big final, and she before stayed away from the stuff. Once you start drinking it, one girl had said to her, it's a constant energy chase between the buzz and the crash. Today she'd absolutely make an exception, even if the only reason was to keep her brain mildly focused.

She carefully winded down the stars to her lab. Hojo was there, digging into one of the many boxes on the desk.

"Can I help you find something?" She asked, only getting incoherent mumbles from the man masked by the furious rummaging sounds. "No, Stop...Hojo, you're going to break something." She grabbed the man's shoulder and he turned his attention to her. "What are you looking for?"

"I had demanded those incompetent orderlies to organize my grounds of baked seeds from a very specific species of evergreen shrub and those degenerates couldn't even accomplish that!"

"Coffee... You're looking for coffee." _Couldn't have just said that, could we?_ "Okay... Well, you're in luck. They just brewed some in the kitchen-"

"I'd sooner drink liquid nitrogen than that sludge!"

"Alright then." She sat down in one of the metal chairs on the opposite end of the table, setting down the ceramic mug on the surface of the counter that wasn't being effected by Hojo's earthquake. She grabbed one of the boxes and pulled it toward her, shifting through its contents. This seemed to irritate Hojo.

"What are you doing?"

Lucrecia shrugged. "Unpacking."

"That should have been accomplished yesterday evening. What were you doing instead?"

"You're not my supervisor, and yesterday was my day off, so that's really none of your business. Besides, we don't have any samples yet, so the only thing there is to do today is get prepared."

Hojo just scoffed at her and continued his rummaging.

She probably should have told him that she knew exactly where the coffee was, but she figured she'd wait until she'd finished hers first. They'd been short on storage space on the airship, and the company wasn't going to allow them to make two trips. They'd been allotted a certain number of boxes that had been pre-approved to stack perfectly in the cargo area. The last box that was available was full of Wutai Windstorm Gourmet; an obnoxious amount of it. They were given their own containers for personal belongings, and if it had really been that important, it should have been stored safely in one of those. Lucrecia chucked the grounds in the trash compactor before stocking the box with last-minute supplies.

Fortunately, for the size of the cellar-like room, there was ample storage space. It had an incubator, which was more than she could have hoped for. It was indeed necessary, but she was half expecting to have to break out the portable one from Midgar. It was harder to keep those stable because the compact design was the main feature instead of reliable technology, and was an unfair trade-off. Meant for temporary use only. It was alright in a pinch and great for transporting, though not highly recommended for any extended period of time.

After the first box was emptied, she'd started on another. It contained a microscope and over a dozen notebooks placed around the fragile piece of equipment for protection. She removed the notebooks and stacked them against the wall.

She looked up and found her favorite Turk in the corner of the room with his hands folded behind his back. She hadn't even known he was there, or heard him come in. "Oh, Vincent!" She got up from her chair and went over to him. "I just wanted to say thank you."

He smiled crookedly. "What for?"

"You know... For last night."

Hojo's head snapped up and he gave her an exasperated look. Vincent was quick to notice this, and grinned at her. She blushed furiously, finally realizing how that must have sounded. "For saving my life! Thank you for saving my life last night because that's what happened and nothing else!"

Vincent's grin didn't lessen. "I certainly hope you're feeling alright this morning." His eyes shifted to the other scientist in the room as he spoke. "We were up all night, after all."

There was something about the way he said those words that made her blush again. Hojo grabbed the book he had open on the desk and stormed out of the room. Lucrecia couldn't help but crack a smile, though she was visibly trying not to and failing miserably. "Seriously, how is that helping?"

The Turk shrugged. "You started it."

"Well, if that's what it takes to get him to leave a room..." She sighed, focusing her attention on unpacking the box again. "That was Professor Hojo."

"I know. I've had the pleasure of meeting him a few years ago at a reactor conference."

"How'd that go?"

"He berated various 'incompetent imbeciles' over the prolonged effects that the Mako radiation will have upon his 'precious specimens', or something like that. Also that a scientist of his 'caliber and brilliance' shouldn't be subjected to such insolence, or some nonsense."

"Sounds about like Hojo."

Vincent chuckled. "That was the time when they first built the model of Midgar and they were showing it off that evening. Alvareaz from Urban Development held up a tiny room from the model and announced that they'd be able to give Hojo's brilliance its own lab."

Lucrecia burst out into peals of laughter. Exactly like last night, it had taken her by complete surprise. Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd thought that Hojo's confidence was under-earned. "I really meant what I said earlier, by the way. Thank you."

"I was just doing my job, ma'am."

"Of course you were." Lucrecia looked down at the cylindrical plastic containers in her hand and bit her lip. Feeling her hands start to shake slightly, she set each one on the counter slowly. "I shouldn't have gone out. I put us both in danger. I'm really sorry. I'll do anything to make it up to you."

"You already have."

"I don't understand."

He smiled softly, but it didn't reach his eyes. "You don't have to."

She resumed unpacking; the next box was full of vials of varying variety, and a box of slides. She felt excitement building until she opened the box and discovered that they were already organized perfectly. She made a face and closed the box.

The vials she'd organized by priority; not normally the way she would have if she'd had a bigger surface, but there was limited counter space and some of the seldom used stuff would have to go in the cabinets. They would still be accessible, but out of the way for the time being.

She finished that box, and the task was going much too quickly for her liking. She'd prefer to keep busy all day until Gast arrived, for idle thoughts she knew would have a cunning way of retreating back to the subject she was most diligently trying to avoid. Speaking of which...

Vincent had been standing in the same spot fixed entirely on her for every single one of the twenty minutes she'd killed unpacking. She gave him a disbelieving smile. "I understand the whole 'bodyguard' concept... but how much danger do you think I'm in right now?"

"I'm nothing if not thorough, ma'am."

"Won't you get bored?"

"Watching you? I think it's impossible."

Her unwelcome smile crept up again, accompanied by the familiar heat in her cheeks. "Hojo isn't here anymore. You can stop that."

"Stop what?" He said, innocently.

Gast was spending the day making the long hike to the reactor to gather some samples. It hadn't been necessary for all of them to go, though Lucrecia figured she would eventually want to make the trip, if for no other reason than to see the Materia caves.

It was a ten mile hike to the reactor, and another ten miles back. They left early in the morning, and she'd known it would probably take all or most of the day give or take. When evening fell, she was starting to get worried about her colleague when he hadn't yet returned. When dusk fell and the last box was unpacked, she'd excused Vincent from his post much to his amusement, and went to her room to finish the unpacking she'd sort of started the day before, and would have been able to finish then if it wasn't her slightly-manic mental breakdown. The personal effects were of course less of a priority, but if it got her mind somewhere other than where it was, it was time well spent.

It was over too quickly though, and after the last piece of clothing was meticulously folded and put away, she sighed. There was still no sign of Gast when she looked out the huge mansion window.

The mansion's courtyard had beautiful lighting after dusk, most being supplied by an over-sized five-tier fountain that was big enough to swim in. Someone had put in a lot of time making the front of the building look incredible. There was a charming little path that led to a small gazebo that was surrounded by flowers, some of them roses. It smelled absolutely amazing. Flowers weren't a common smell in Midgar. Sometimes there was a cart that came around with candles that imitated the scent, though poorly. Not at all like the real thing.

There was a family that lived close to her that sold flowers for a gil, and sometimes she would buy some for her sister. They smelled like heaven, but they didn't last very long under the sunless city. Sille had found a way to mash them up and make them into perfume, though Lucrecia'd never figured how. Sille was special just like their mother.

The combination with the fresh air and the old wood in the courtyard of the old house was a pleasurable sensory overload. In the background, Mt. Nibel dominated the horizon.

She sat on the fountain facing the gate. She'd been anxious that the sun had gone down and Gast was still out there. She knew first-handedly that night time in those woods often proved to be dangerous, and that the rumors of vicious creatures near the reactor were not rumors at all. Gast had the advantage of having an escort, that fact had brought her some peace. Promised Land knew that if Lucrecia's escort had been a no-show last night, by now she would know the exact truth of the fabled land itself.

Of course, with that peace, her thoughts ventured to her hero without her permission. What was it about him that attracted her with such intensity? Even at that moment with the gorgeous scenery and the calm before the research started, there was something inside of her that felt empty. A space that either she hadn't previously noticed, or a space that Vincent had so cunningly created inside of her just for himself while she hadn't been paying attention. Either way, the emptiness was there and she was constantly aware of it. It was almost painful, like it threatened to take control and turn her inside out. It was terrifying that another human held that much power.

_Gods, stop it. I'm annoying myself now._

The temperature was falling, and the cold bit at her skin with the breeze, especially where the droplets from the fountain had been resting on her skin. She'd pulled out her ponytail when she'd felt the first chill, her hair providing a curtain of warmth down her back. She hugged her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, still focused on the open gate. Sometimes it would sway with the wind and she'd watch the shadow dance, cast by the moonlight. There was no trace of sunset left. Wherever Gast was, it was completely night.

She was lost in her thoughts when a blanket wrapped around her sounders and she'd turned around to see her favorite face smiling softly at her. She was filled with a new warmth immediately, and she knew it wasn't from the blanket. She moved her legs and patted the spot next to her. Vincent sat down.

"I recall giving you the night off, Vincent Valentine... If you're worried about me, don't be. I don't plan on running off tonight. Get some sleep."

"You should sleep, too. They're alright; you don't have to worry."

"S'cuse me?"

Vincent sighed and his hand went to rub the back of his neck. A nervous gesture? Vincent? Impossible. "To put it bluntly since I don't really know any other way: if Gast was dead, Veld would be, too. He doesn't fail missions." The hand dropped to his lap, and he looked off toward the direction of the mountain.

Lucrecia grimaced. "Ever?"

He made eye contact. "Not once."

She was smiling again. She knew it was inappropriate, but it was too difficult not to. "So... Both of them dead, possibly. How exactly is this supposed to relax me?"

"They're not dead. I would know. Shinra would know by now."

"So soon?"

"They'd know before his gun grew cold."

Lucrecia shuddered. "I suppose that's comforting." She looked down at her feet which were bare and almost white with the lighting. She pulled the blanket over to cover her legs and sighed. Maybe sleep wouldn't be such a bad idea, but she'd never be willing to move away from a spot where Vincent was. "How do you figure that that's what I was thinking about? It could have been any number of other things."

_Why already do you know me so well?_

"You've been eyeing that gate for several minutes. Either you were trying to memorize it, or you're worrying. I suppose it was an educated guess."

"You were watching me." Lucrecia chuckled once. "Why? I gave you the night off. You don't have to worry about me. I won't go off by myself anymore; I've already promised you."

That's not it. To be honest... you fascinate me."

She blinked, staring at him for a few seconds. "I... why?"

"I'm still figuring that out."

"That might take a while."

"You're very genuine."

"Supposing that's a good thing, what exactly does being a genuine person entail?"

He seemed to study her for a time. "You're very humble. You're not trying way too hard to be some pretentious Shinra science snob. You seem comfortable with just existing. You're smart, funny, and... completely surprising. I've only known you for a couple days, but that's not what it feels like."

Her heart sped and swelled with each of his words. "I know exactly what you mean."

_But, you're the reason I am even any of those things. _

"Hm. Okay, my turn." She turned to face him, and searched his face. "You are... reserved, confident, intelligent, sensitive... strange and insane, for finding me fascinating..." She smiled and reached up a brave hand to touch one of his midnight locks. She intended to push it out if his face, but instead let the strands slowly glide through her fingers, surprised at how soft his hair was. Vincent's eyes closed; he didn't protest. "Exquisite..." She reached the end of the strand and let it fall back to his face. "Thoughtful... Mysterious... And that's why I'm quite fascinated and surprised by you, as well."

He grabbed her hand before she could move it away and squeezed it. Her heart fluttered. He was smiling her favorite smile again and his eyes held that incredible light. She returned his smile, probably with some silly dreamy look on her face that couldn't be helped, and they both turned back toward the mountain.

* * *

><p>Thank you so much for reading.<p> 


	7. 1-6 Christening

1-6. Christening

000

_Now you're not satisfied_  
><em>With what you're being put through<em>

_It's just time to pay the price_  
><em>For not listening to advice<em>

_Policy of Truth - Depeche Mode_

000

Gast had returned two days later with the Jenova samples. When Hojo had so graciously asked him what had taken him so long, he explained that the place had a sort of trance on him that he needed some time to figure out. It was very Gast, so Lucrecia had thought almost nothing of it. She'd make it a point to have him elaborate more on that some time, or maybe she'd go see it for herself. The couple of days to herself after she'd spent most of the first unpacking and getting everything in order to her satisfaction were appreciated, though it seemed Hojo hadn't enjoyed the downtime quite as much as she had.

But then again, where there was downtime, there was Vincent. There could have been a Mako apocalypse for all she cared. If Vincent was there, she would have been completely fine with it, and it would have certainly been time well spent.

The samples were stacked in three perfect stacks of plastic columns inside the incubator. One was human, the other was the unconfirmed Cetra, and the third were empty. She labeled the top sample of each stack with different pieces of colorful tape; green for Jenova, yellow for human. Blue would be for relevant results, red for irrelevant. She'd been criticized for using this system before, but she'd argued that eyes see colors much faster than it takes to read text. Beside those, glass bottles of glowing Mako almost illuminated the small space. She'd prepared several slides for the trial and error, carefully set them aside.

She grabbed the microscope from the corner, careful to carry it by the arm and the base, and sat it in the middle of the counter. She plugged it in and turned it on, verifying that everything worked.

"Getting to that already?" Vincent speculated.

"Yeah... Normally I'd hypothesize; that's what they teach you to do first, but I've had plenty of time to think about it while Gast was taking his time in those caves... Not to mention, before the project started." Before the project started, she was able to think a lot clearer.

Vincent just nodded.

Besides, there was only three ingredients. The only thing that could vary was the amount of each. It was easy enough. They had more than enough samples at their disposal, and if they ever needed more, the source was only a day's hike away.

She readied one slide with the Jenova cell clusters, and another with human. She took several moments to examine each one under the microscope carefully, jotting down each detail. She knew what to expect with human cells; with many hours of physiology and biology under her belt, she'd had them practically memorized. Making sure to notate the differences seemed essential.

There were many differences. It would have taken less time to note the similarities. It was odd, because outwardly, Cetra and humans looked identical. Could there really be a night and day drastic difference between the two creatures who derived from the same history?

Humans were Cetra who had given up their settlement... at least that's what she'd read in a textbook. It could have just been one person's conclusion. Always take things from textbooks with a grain of salt. The people who wrote them were just that; people. Humans. Humans often make mistakes and miscalculations, especially when they are enthusiastic about the result they've come up with. They could have just ended up being an entirely different species, though if that were the case, someone should have completely discovered this by now. For being a popular topic, there wasn't an abundance of Ancient knowledge available that historians and scientists actually agreed upon. There were clashes always somewhere. The Promised Land for example. Historians swear this to be true while scientists are much more skeptical; the land is a made-up fairy tale to amuse the gullible and the children into believing that there is a special place in this world that, if you just keep looking for it and never give up, will promise supreme happiness and contentment.

And Shinra supposed Mako would be there too, once, at a mandatory conference. Massive internal eye roll. In the back of her mind she figured that the only reason Shinra would want to bring the Cetra population back in any state would be so they could eventually lead them to this elusive enigma. Instead, they'd offered some speal about feeling guilty that they'd had such an ugly demise. The ultimate plan was to create a Cetra, and have them co-exist with the humans. Lucrecia personally thought this was far-fetched, but the idea of being able to create even just one Ancient was enticing still, no matter what the twisted reasoning behind the motivation happened to be.

Create the Cetra, then kill it once we've reached the promised land.

She shuddered the thought away, not wanting to dwell upon how realistic that plan might be.

She quickly put together a slide made up of the Jenova cell clusters and dropped the tiniest amount of Mako, sliding the strip under the microscope. Results were almost never ready immediately; it usually took sitting in the incubator for a time before anything real started to happen. Lucrecia hated waiting. The cluster looked the same so far; the only difference is it had been tinted with the bright turquoise that was the Mako. She watched for another couple of minutes.

The cells seemed to slowly spread out while still being bound together. They were changing... and quickly. It was hard to wait. She paced back and forth and shook her hands that were quivering with anticipation.

Twenty agonizing minutes later, she peered back into the microscope. The cells had spread out and aligned themselves in a Mako-colored sheet. They looked like human cells now, only something was off. The nucleolus had appeared to grow in size substantially, and the cell wall was thicker and less transparent. She flipped through a biology textbook, one she'd had almost memorized but needed to be certain.

_Amazing._

She handled it carefully and practically sprinted to Professor Gast's lab.

The older scientist offered her his beaming smile after examining the find himself. "That is certainly something! I knew we had something special here. I can't wait to learn more! Well done, Doctor!"

She shrugged the praise off; it wasn't needed or really deserved yet. "It was your discovery, Professor," she said, still excited.

She quickly ran back to her lab, eager to chronicle the cell reactions. She'd spent the last three hours scribbling in a composition book.

If Vincent actually did get bored, he never once showed it. He was always professional and so quietly self-amused in a corner with the greatest view of the door and stood straight up with his hands folded in front of him. He was meticulously professional, and though Lucrecia was constantly aware of his presence, it didn't unease her. It was the opposite. When he did leave the room, it seemed like all she could focus on was when he would be coming back.

There were times when instead of Vincent, there would be a muscular blonde man who introduced himself as Veld. He was quiet and appeared to be older than Vincent by at least ten years. He was nice enough, though he didn't really speak much. She'd heard that the same could be said about Vincent, though he didn't seem to have that problem when she was around him.

When Vincent wasn't around, she found herself looking for him. She'd caught him on the second day laying down with his eyes closed under a tree. He looked so peaceful that he might have even been sleeping. It made sense; they hadn't gotten the best sleep in the last twenty-four hours. It would have been the perfect opportunity to catch up while work was slow, but Lucrecia had decided on the second night to sneak off a second time. This time, she invited her favorite Turk.

It took her all of two weeks for the smarter part of herself to come to the conclusion that she'd been head over heels in love with this amazing man, though the rest of her was still denying it pretty heavily. She suspected that it was because she'd never before had a friend, let alone someone who could make her laugh and never stop smiling. Not having many people in her life that she could have even sort of called friends in the past, she figured she was just unaccustomed to establishing boundaries that normally construed a friendship. Though admittedly, there was never anyone that she'd wanted to be friends with before Vincent.

People were just there before, she'd usually considered most of them to be boring or an unnecessary distraction. She imagined it wouldn't have been that hard to make friends if she'd put in half the effort.

"What's wrong?" Vincent had asked her while they were sitting together at their tree during the sixteenth consecutive afternoon they'd spent together. Was it weird that she was counting? She just shook her head. How could anything be wrong when they were together?

_What's wrong with me?_

_You're in love._

_No! That's ridiculous. I don't... do that. I'm not that person._

_Vincent, what's wrong is that I am not this person. I am cold, cynical and withdrawn. I'm boring. You've taken that person and turned her upside down and given me paradise instead. I'll never be able to repay you for the many, many amazing ways you've transformed my life._

She sighed. "Nothing."

"You're so quiet."

She squirmed. "Yeah... I'm just thinking."

"About?"

"Lots of things...?" Lucrecia laughed.

"Well, think out loud."

She sighed. "You really don't want me to do that."

"Try me."

"Okay..." She sighed and took a deep breath. "It's such a beautiful day. I have grass in my hair. I'll actually have to brush it at some point tonight. Hojo has been out of sight for a while. This is great but at the same time, I have all the Jenova samples in the incubator and they're all still there, so what exactly is he doing? Also, the incubator's hinge is a little rusty, like it hadn't been used in a long time. It makes a pretty loud squeak as you've heard when it's opened, and I bet the entire mansion could hear it. I want to get it oiled, but then I wouldn't be able to tell if someone besides me opened it... not super important, but I'm curious. Also the reaction point in Mako seems to be much stronger with the supposed Cetra cells than in regular human cells, and it's my job to determine if that's a good thing or a bad thing... my guess is it's because Mako is 'Planet juice', as my sister Sille would call it, and Cetra are more connected to the planet-"

"Alright, take a breath." She did, and Vincent laughed. He laid back in the grass with his arms tucked behind his head. "It's amazing you can just open up your thoughts like that."

_Not all of them. _"I suppose."

"Do you ever... have any about me?"

_Only every other thought I have. _"Yes."

His smile grew. "Well?"

She bit her lip. "Access denied."

"Oh, come on."

"Hmmmm..." She looked at him and gave him a mischievous grin. "I think that even with my heels on, I could reach the mansion gate before you."

Vincent laughed. "In those torture devices? You're on."

000

"You let me win; that wasn't fair." She giggled as they entered her lab.

"I would never! You're just fast!"

Through their giggling bliss, neither one of them noticed Hojo standing impatiently by her table until his voice rasped through the area. "Doctor Crescent! You've been gone for forty-five minutes. Now it is almost ten till."

"Yeah, I was waiting for my samples to mature. Professor Hojo, you've got to see this reaction; I think Gast is really onto something."

"On something, is more like it. Well, have at it, now. Unlike you, I haven't got all day."

"Right, okay." She opened up the incubator and removed her slides from earlier, lining them up on the desk. She selected the first one and put secured it under the microscope.

Hojo didn't wait for permission; he peaked immediately. He adjusted the microscope in several different ways and sat up straight, turning to her. "Hmph! I don't see what is so impressive."

She looked through the microscope and saw the cell unchanged, blue with Mako. "Hold on..." She removed that slide and sat it on the other side of the microscope, and tried another. Unchanged. "This is bizarre, the first one reacted! I don't understand..."

"That feeling should come naturally to you."

"It reacted the first time. I can prove it. I have the slide..." She turned around and her hands dropped upon her realization. "I...gave it to Gast."

Hojo laughed. "It's as good as history now, isn't it?"

"Give me another hour, I'll have another one-"

"Nonsense! I'm watching you; you'd best stop fooling around and get some work done!" The door to her own lab slammed behind the disgruntled scientist. The nerve he had to scold her like that... and what had he been doing lately that contributed to their success in this project? There were still as many samples as there were before she left, and unless he had a hidden stash somewhere, he was off doing gods-know-what all day long.

Vincent, like always, seemed to read her mind. "So, what makes him anything other than useless?"

"I wouldn't say 'useless'. He's great at telling time." She sat in her chair and slumped down.

Vincent's laugh made her smile and the annoyance almost completely vanished. Her notebook was already open to where she left off, and the sample she readied before her break should have been ready by now.

After retrieving the slide from the incubator, she carefully put it on the stage of the microscope and secured it with the tiny metal clips. She took a deep breath and took a look.

The cluster was still a cluster; the only difference was the bright blue hue. Her brow furrowed.

_I don't understand... have I not given it enough time? It took only twenty minutes last time... Have I given it too much time? Damn, I should have been monitoring! This is what I get for being impulsive...shit._

She took the slide off of the microscope and pressed on the plastic. After holding it up to the light and confirming that it had indeed been the same one, she washed her hands and changed her gloves. Time to start over.

_I know what I saw, but a result is useless if it can't be reproduced. _

She opened the incubator and grabbed three more plastic containers containing the microscopic samples. As a new slide was prepared, scrawled notes were jotted down in her composition book. An eyedropper full of Mako was used on the first slide, and the second she lowered the amount by half. The third, only a tiny drop was used. She lidded the containers and set them side by side on the tray, and they were set back in the incubator. The gloves were pulled off and tossed in the biohazard receptacle. She scrawled something else in the open notebook.

Vincent was silent the entire time, though she felt him watching her. It initially made her self-conscious and careful, but through her irritation it was hard to feel anything other than annoyed at herself.

She fingered through a book on Ancient biology while she waited, casually discussing the things she knew about Ancients with Vincent, who had been inquiring about the goal after the samples were put away and he deemed her safe to speak to. He knew a lot more than she had expected and this impressed her. It made the hour she needed to pass go by a lot quicker.

The end result was unchanged as before.

"How _is_ that degree working out for you, _Doctor_?" Hojo was sneering a smile in the doorway of her lab.

She put her forehead down on the desk.

* * *

><p>Thank you for reading. Do you like it so far? Reviews and criticism of any kind appreciated.<p> 


	8. 1-7 Distractions and Diversions

1-7. Distractions and Diversions

000

_There's something in the water_  
><em> I do not feel safe<em>  
><em> It always feels like torture <em>  
><em> to be this close<em>

_ I wish that I was stronger_  
><em> I'd separate the waves<em>  
><em> Not just let the water<em>  
><em> Take me away<em>

Hurts - The Water

000

It was the fifteenth day of the agonizing frustration, and the eighteenth day officially of the project. Lucrecia spent on average eighteen hours a day in the laboratory. The rest of the time was spent either trying to sleep and failing, or when Vincent would require her to take a break. Vincent tried his best to get her away from the equipment when she was at the peak of aggravation, and that helped tremendously, even if she would initially resist each time. Everything in the world that was wrong melted away when she was with him, and all of her troubles were miles away.

Though when it was over, she'd return to the same spot she'd left with absolutely no progress in anything.

It was beyond confusing that nothing seemed to add up, and that enigmatic first result was as elusive and unachievable as ever. She had only herself to blame for being impulsive, even though it didn't seem to be anything special or different that brought the results that first time. It wasn't as if it had been some hugely complicated process, either. She did know as well as the next scientist that anything could be a factor. Humidity. Temperature. Outside influences, even the condition of the slides before preparation... though in her experience, small factors had never triggered such drastic results...

She recreated seemingly every little tiny thing from that day, even to the point of having Vincent stand in the same corner he was. She put her book down exactly as it had been and turned it to the same page. She'd asked him to help her brainstorm every detail, and replicated that day nearly perfectly. She wore the same clothes, and tied her hair the exact same way.

When that didn't work, she dug the gloves from that day out of the trash and put the fingers under the microscope just to make sure there had been nothing strange on them that day.

When the second week came close to coming to an end, she wouldn't step away voluntarily anymore. She would stare into the microscope for the entire twenty, forty, or sixty minutes. Nothing changed; nothing ever changed.

She was watching the blue cell do absolutely nothing for the countless time though the microscope when she felt a hand on her sounder that made her jump. Vincent was there, looking concerned.

"Come on," he said. "It's time to take a well-being break."

"No, no. I'm not ready," She replied, not looking up from the eye piece.

"Well, I'm intervening. Let's go."

She released the equipment, and fell back into the metal chair. "I'm starting to feel like a good scientist."

Vincent gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

She shook her head, laughing without humor. "Nothing."

000

"I didn't even care about this project initially... but I know what I saw that first time," she'd told him when they were sitting under the tree. He'd bring her here a few times a day, sometimes in states that were not far from kicking and screaming. The past couple of days it's been more often that they'd wind up out here, though for hardly longer than it took for her to remember the zero progress. She was picking grass blades one by one out of the ground and throwing them, watching them land a few feet in front of her and repeating the process. "I'm pretty sure I've done about everything I can possibly think of... Hell. I've even tried bribing the samples... pretty sad. Nothing is working, and I'm very sure that I'm starting to lose my mind. Hopefully you'll still be my friend when I'm kicked off of the project."

"You're being ridiculous. It's much too early to think about giving up."

"I just... That first day. Damn, why didn't I be more careful?!" She pounded the grassy ground with her fist.

"You're obsessing," Vincent said.

The temperature was just a little chilly, but she kept warm through her lab coat. Lately, she felt naked without it. She wasn't technically supposed to wear it off of the mansion grounds, but the townspeople already knew that Shinra's scientists occupied the big house, and she saw no point in trying to hide it anymore. Dark clouds were rolling in, and it looked like it would start to pour on them anytime soon. She would cherish every second with Vincent and away from that stupid basement for now.

"I know what I saw," She repeated. "I feel like I'm going crazy."

"Don't think about that. Think about something else." Vincent's voice was calm and collected. It had been something steady she could wrap her mind around when she felt like her sanity was leaving her, but right now it just didn't seem to be working.

She shrugged. "I can't."

His hand touched the side of her face, turning it so she was looking into his eyes. Her mind effectively went blank. His soft fingers trailed down her cheek, and her skin tingled with the contact. The hand went in her hair and gathered a strand, gliding down the lock just as she had done with him that second night. The gesture was simple and meant to be calming, but Lucrecia's heart sped like she'd been running a marathon.

When the hand left her hair, he scooted closer to her. "Are you thinking about it now?"

_If I told him 'yes', would he touch me more?_

At that moment, yes was the only thing she ever wanted to tell Vincent.

"Kind of," she muttered. A soft rolling of thunder sounded off in the distance.

_Like he'd ever want a nutcase like you. The only reason he's even giving you the time of day is because it's his job. He's being forced to put up with you. He's getting paid probably very well to do it.  
><em>

_At this moment, I just don't care. _

Vincent smiled and her heart threatened to jump out if her chest when he leaned closer to her. She held her breath and her eyes closed automatically, and Vincent brushed his lips very softly against hers. They lingered for seconds before capturing her lips in a gentle kiss. She inhaled through her nose, and his sweet scent added to the sensory overload. Sparks flew in her mind and she wasn't on the ground anymore. Her head went light, and it was like an explosion had been set off inside of her body full of colors and fireworks. For a time, she almost had mistaken the experience for death; could any living feeling possibly hold this ethereal divinity? Or possibly a sweet dream she never wanted to wake up from.

He lingered for a few moments - not long enough - and released her, not pulling back. Her breath hitched in her throat. He gently kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear. His voice was low and held something that made her body react in some embarrassing ways. "How about now?"

"Hey you two! Lovers! A storm is rolling in, better take the heat-fest inside!" They were interrupted by a ridiculously loud voice behind them. The interruption made Lucrecia jump, but Vincent's composure never faltered. It could have been her imagination or wishful thinking, but Vincent instantly seemed incredibly annoyed with the approaching stranger. "You're in luck. I got a brother at the inn. Tell him Zangar sent you, and he'll give you a discount."

Lucrecia blushed furiously, but surprised herself by managing to find her voice. "That's very nice... Zangar, is it? But we're not lovers, and we were just leaving. Thank you for the warning...I guess."

The middle-aged stranger feigned surprise. "Not lovers? You all sure looked awful cozy. You're from Shinra, aren't ya? I know everyone in this town, I could tell you all'a their names too."

"Thanks anyway," Vincent said with disdain heavy in his voice.

"If you all aren't lovers, miss, I'm a martial arts teacher. I could offer you some lessons in case you ever find yourself in a compromising situation." The thunder rumbled, mercifully offering them an exit from this awkward and unmerited conversation. "There it is. Get inside; don't stay out here! It's dangerous!"

"We'll absolutely do that, Zangar, thank you." Lucrecia and Vincent got up from the grass and started walking quickly. It turned into a run when the sprinkles stared, and they were safe in the mansion before it started raining too hard.

She'd spent the evening rummaging through old notes and textbooks, afraid that if she looked through that damned microscope again, she might just be stuck there for a good long while. She pawed through textbooks, one from an Ancient history class. As she expected, there wasn't any scientific explanations in there, but she had to try.

That night as she was laying down in her bed and waiting to fall asleep, she couldn't bring herself to obsess about the project. Instead, she found herself wondering what would have happened if they hadn't been rudely interrupted earlier that day, and their distraction adventure had gone farther. She of course would have lied to him, never admitting for a second that her mind was any distance away from the toxic topic in hopes of his hands on her body in continuing efforts. She daydreamed about different scenarios and let them play out in her mind. Vincent's voice was there just as it had been; low and husky. It was there earlier; real and not imagined. It had a role in lighting her body on fire. How impossible it was to think about anything else when that voice loomed in her memory.

It would have been easy to get to sleep when she was thinking that Vincent would be in that basement when she woke up and be with her all day. This gave her comfort and excitement, and confidence that he wouldn't let her lose her mind.

However, when she would think about how close she physically was to Vincent laying down just one wall over probably with his shirt off and maybe even in his underwear, sleep eluded her like a sickness. She imagined his form moving gently up and down as he slept or maybe the adorable position he'd be in... or what they might do in that bed in the far reaches of one of her dreams...

Eventually sleep did come, and with it, so did the sixteenth day.

000

"What's wrong?" Vincent asked the next morning.

Lucrecia shook her head, which was resting in her hands with her elbows on the table. "Nothing."

_The sixteenth day of nothing, to be exact._

"Something's wrong," Vincent kept on. It was a question that he would ask often, though never one that she could accurately answer. Most of the time, the only thing that was wrong was that Vincent wasn't in her arms. It was incredibly wrong that she couldn't seem to maintain a professional relationship with the fellow employee and she considered herself weak for letting these stupid feelings get to her.

She wasn't this person. She was smart, and reserved, and matured. She didn't have puppy-love crushes. She didn't come undone for a handsome face, even though Vincent was so much more than that... She didn't think that she was that type of person, and she'd always rather liked that about herself. While a majority of the other girls in her class were more fixed on guys than grades, it allowed her to easily surpass them intellectually and it made life just that much easier for her that her brain wasn't forcing her to participate in unnecessary impulses. Before Vincent, she wasn't that type of person. Now, she wasn't sure what type of person she was.

Being around Vincent felt incredible, and it unnerved her. What was even more unsettling is she felt like he could tell. He could tell something was off about her, and that's why he would ask her that damned infuriating question at least thrice daily.

"Nothing's wrong, stop." She playfully threw a paper ball at him, which he dodged perfectly.

"Tell me what's wrong..." He cracked his crooked smile, no doubt knowing that hers would inevitably follow.

"It's you, now!" She laughed, feeling almost instantly better. "No, nothing. Or nothing new. I just... can't figure this out, this..." She opened the incubator and searched inside while she spoke. "Cell thing and... wait."

She closed the door and stopped. She opened it again, and realized that it made no sound.

Previously, the door had been so loud, she was sure the entire mansion had known when it was open. She slammed it shut and ran her fingers over the top hinge that had been rusted, and it was oily. Someone had oiled it. She immediately looked to Vincent, who shrugged.

She'd thought back to how long ago it was the last time she'd heard the door squeak. It must have been that same day Hojo had scolded her for being late returning. She slammed the soundless incubator and quickly opened her notebook to the page of her first notes and examined the Jenova-labled cells under the microscope and confirmed her suspicions. Heat flooded her veins, and she wasn't sure if she should be more angry at the culprit, or the fact that she had gone over two weeks without noticing that the cells she'd been driving herself absolutely mad over were the wrong ones.

_That son of a bitch. _

"Vincent...please excuse me, I'll be right back." She stormed out of the room and down the hall. He wasn't in the huge lab that Gast and him were supposed to be sharing, and neither was Gast. She figured he was away again, but Hojo would never have agreed to go with him...

Back down the hall, the tall wooden door that was locked previously was slightly open, and she busted in without knocking or waiting for any invitation. "So... thanks for that. You've set me back about two-hundred-something hours, almost... Can I have my samples back now?"

Hojo looked up from his table. Attached to the table, there had been another one of the same bird-like creatures he was showing to the group of interns. It was nice to know that he was making himself useful to this specific project. He looked up at her only a few seconds after her outburst, not visibly affected by her barging in on him. He'd probably been expecting it. "They were never _your _samples."

Lucrecia fumed. She flexed her fingers and fought to keep them from balling into fists and wailing on the older scientist. How badly she wanted to... "Are we going to do this childish bullshit? 'I had them first', 'I don't see your name on them', I'm really pressed for time contrary to your belief, so let's just pretend like we bicker back and forth for another ten minutes... That leaves us where, exactly? The samples, please, professor?" He stared at her for a solid minute, and then he turned back to his bird thing, apparently choosing to just completely ignore her. Lucrecia took a deep breath and counted backwards from ten in her head. "Come on... we're supposed to be a team, not competition."

"Don't flatter yourself, rat," He retorted suddenly. He snatched a stack of plastic containers and Lucrecia thought for a second that he was going to toss them at her. She flinched involuntarily, and he sneered. "You'll never be my competition."

"Do you know how crazy this has been driving me for the past week? I'm having nightmares about this! I can't sleep! You didn't need to ask my permission to take the samples, but you could have at least told me...or... not lined the... whatever those were..." They weren't human cells... she'd have caught onto that. She wasn't curious at the moment. "Not lined the other ones up exactly as I'd left the Jenova ones!"

"Sounds like you're lacking organizational skills, Doctor. You are taking the frustration of your incompetence out on me, and I'm not having it. Excuse yourself at once."

She grabbed the plastic containers from him and left the room before she could say anything to him that might cost her job.

Fleeting down the hall, she fought to keep herself off of the verge of tears. It was clear to her that Hojo didn't like her, but having it get to the point of sabotaging the progress of the project they'd both been on assigned to was just despicable. What had she done to this man to make him hate her so much?

Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe he'd been saving the other samples for something, and just neglected to tell her. Granted, that wasn't the only incubator in the mansion; there was another in the bigger lab, though it could have been full of anything Doctor Gast deemed relevant... maybe there wasn't enough room.

_No... They were lined up perfectly, and the top one even had her green sticker. How else would that have gotten there? That bastard._

She stopped short of the door and took a deep breath. She had to pull herself together, because no doubt Vincent would notice any trace of distress she emitted.

She walked back into her lab, muttering to herself. "Must not kill Hojo. Must not strange Hojo. Must not try to rearrange Hojo's face and call it 'scalpel art'..."

Vincent smirked mischievously. "Would you like to borrow my gun for no specific purpose at all?"

This made her laugh, despite being irritated. He always made her feel better, whether he was trying to or not. She taps her chin, pretending to consider his offer for a moment. "Nah. That would just be really mean to the housekeepers."

There wasn't any more time to waste; she was already very angry at herself for the time that was wasted. The samples were replaced back to their original places in the incubator and she left one of them out, quickly preparing a slide.

She took a moment to examine the cluster, making sure it had been the ones she was missing. When she made sure that they looked different from the human cells and the unknown Hojo cells, she dropped the tiniest amount of Mako on them and waited for hopefully the last time.

She couldn't blame it on Hojo this time. The end result was futile, and she was running out of red tape.

* * *

><p>As always, thank you so much for reading. If you have a few minutes, reviews are immensely appreciated.<p> 


	9. 1-8 Home Again

1-8. Home Again

000

_I've seen the horror, I've seen the wonders_  
><em> Happening just in front of my eyes<em>  
><em> Will I ever, will I never free myself<em>  
><em> By making it right?<em>

_I'd give my heart, I'd give my soul_  
><em> I'd turn it back, it's my fault<em>  
><em> Your destiny is forlorn<em>  
><em> Have to live till it's undone<em>

Within Temptation - Jillian

000

She'd continued to try to recreate the result that had her so optimistic that first day for longer than she'd cared to admit before determining that it had just been a fluke reaction, through it was much harder to accept that instead of a huge breakthrough happening, she'd spent nearly three months finding absolutely nothing. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but one that she'd have to get used to. Finding nothing was how most of the time spent in this career field. She understood that being a scientist would mean that there would be failures and dry spells, and even though this didn't make any kind of sense to her, she eventually just accepted it. Win a little, lose a lot.

She'd instead focused on the effects long-term exposure the Jenova cells had to Mako. This didn't require a whole lot of daily time; she would look at them every day and notate the differences, which had never been drastic or dramatic. It was insignificant, for everyone already knew that there were long-term Mako effects... at least in human cells. The Jenova cells still had no reaction with the human cells when combined together in any fashion.

She'd kept busy anyway, for the most part. She'd explored the library and tried to learn as much as she could about the ancients. A closer look at the organized slides helped her familiarize herself with the differences and similarities of each specimen. There were some in there that she'd never even heard of, and certainly didn't learn in AP Cellular Biology.

She'd gone through most of the books in the library very quickly, which ended up working out. She hadn't actually needed to kill that much time.

A week ago, they had gotten a summons to a Midgar for a mandatory conference, followed by an exclusive Shinra formal. Lucrecia and Hojo actually agreed on the first thing since their arrival, and that was that the entire thing would likely be pretentious, superfluous, and an otherwise huge waste of time. At least it was the company's own time they were squandering. The traveling part alone would waste a day there and back, but not as brilliantly as the actual project had. It had a special knack for wasting vast amounts of time.

Gast would come to her with a binder full reports he'd readied, and she would have to convince Shinra that her findings were making any kind of progress. Gast was actually quite good at that part. He explained it was easy to get them lost in scientific terms that the board doesn't bother looking further into, or to even comprehend. She gathered he would throw some fancy words at them and they would grant an extension that half of herself wished they would just deny. Gast had still been unreasonably optimistic for someone who spent almost zero time actually studying the cells.

The slowness, despite her small tasks here and there still gave her too much time to think. Lately, thinking was never, ever a good thing.

What if they got back to Midgar and Vincent had a special someone waiting for him, and he'd lied to her this whole time? She'd heard about things like that happening to people who had military lovers. _Vincent is not your lover..._ But he could be someone else's. Maybe she would get the wrong idea about Lucrecia and Vincent. She would tell Vincent's lover that they were just friends and they're relationship was strictly professional, but was it really? Could her heart stand to see Vincent love another woman?

_No._

"What's wrong?" His voice behind her made her jump. She hadn't heard him come in.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Just working."

His brows furrowed. "That's not your working face."

"I might be a little tired."

"Understandable..." He placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. She was grateful for the contact, as she was every time he touched her even in the slightest way, because his touch always sent tingles of electricity down her entire body. While he was behind her, she leaned back to rest her head against his abdomen. She looked up and gave him an upside-down smile.

It had only been three months since the project started, but it had felt like forever. She felt like she'd known Vincent for so much longer, and not only because time would stop completely when he wasn't around. It wasn't even a strange feeling going from preferring her own company to needing his, it just felt normal. Nothing has ever felt more right to her.

_Nevermind, I do want the extension. I have to make this project last forever. I don't ever want to be without him._

As for the project... It was easy not to worry too much about putting the project on pause. It wasn't as if they were on some huge success streak and stopping would have jinxed something. It would be easy to pick up right where they had left off, which was effectively nowhere.

000

The airship ride was a little less than six hours. Vincent and Lucrecia spent most of the time on the top balcony enjoying the views together. They'd past over the Gold Saucer and the mountains of Corel, and the endless ocean that was between the two continents. The day was beautiful, and the airship had provided a pleasant breeze. When they were tired of looking down at the water, they laid on the wooden deck and watched the clouds, talking and giggling. It was nice to not have to worry about Cetras or Jenovas or the project. It wasn't exactly the farthest thing from her mind, but there was something much closer that kept the frustrating things mostly at bay.

It was an airship ride she'd never wanted to end, so naturally it ended way too quickly. She'd have been happy with staying on that deck for forever during the flight, though when she'd seen the first sign of the metal plate that was Midgar, she'd felt suddenly excited to see Sille for the first time in three months. She'd been interested in finding out how she was doing on her own, though it was very strange to think of her as grown up and living on her own now.

Upon their arrival, Gast and Hojo went into the Shinra Headquarters, but there was still a couple hours before the conference started. Vincent had borrowed one of the slick black cars for the trip back to her house in Sector 5. She'd never been inside of a vehicle before, and the ride was exciting. It would be the shiniest thing that the slums had ever seen during her residence there, and though it was prideful, it was still exhilarating.

"It's this one, right here." The car stopped in front of her shabby white house and she got out almost before it was finished moving. She ran up the familiar pathway to the porch and swung the door open. Lucille was there, her eyes widening in excitement upon seeing her big sister. Sille ran into Lucrecia's arms and they tightened lovingly around her.

After the sisters exchanged their high-pitched greetings, the screen door opened. Lucrecia crossed the room and grabbed Vincent's arm. "Sille, this is Vincent. Vincent... this is my baby sister, Lucille."

Vincent nodded to the young girl. "Lucille, it's a pleasure. I've heard so much about you."

Sille squealed and shook his head. "Nice to meet you too, Vince!" Lucrecia winced at the nickname, but Vincent didn't seem to mind it. He just gave the young girl a warm smile. Sille's smile grew, and she elbowed Lucrecia in the rib. "Wow Cresh, your 'friend' sure is cute!"

She glared at her younger sibling.

"Cresh?" Vincent inquired, smiling.

She was grateful he decided to ignore that second part. "Uh, yeah... When she was little, she couldn't say my name very well. It sort of stuck."

Vincent chuckled. "I like it."

Sille was still smiling hugely. "So, Vincent... do you have any single friends?"

Lucrecia's eyes went wide and she gave a sarcastic laugh. "Absolutely not happening, _Silly-Sille_."

The younger just shrugged. "Worth a shot."

Vincent turned to her, taking both of her hands in his, with a smile that melted her heart. "I hope you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to. I will see you after the meeting. At the formal. I'm looking forward to it. I will send someone back to pick you up for the meeting. Please enjoy your time with your lovely sister." He released one hand to capture the other with both of his. He brought it up to his lips and kissed it tenderly before turning back to Sille. "It was truly a pleasure meeting you." The handsome Turk turned to leave.

She watched him go. He climbed into the black car gave her another smile as he drove off. She rubbed the spot on her hand where he had kissed and the black car disappeared into the distance. A hand waved in front of her face and she eyed it back to its source. Sille was giggling. "Your 'friend' is nice. I hope you invite your 'friend' over much more often."

Lucrecia's brow furrowed in confusion at her young sibling. "What's the matter with you? His name is Vincent. Why do you keep saying 'friend'?"

"Because maybe I'm waiting for you to correct me!" Sille exclaimed loudly, as if it should have been obvious.

Lucrecia sighed. "It's not like that."

Sille's jaw dropped. "What do you mean?! That doesn't seem like just a friendship. You are so gone in love with that man! I can tell. Not that I can blame you. He's way intense." Sille idly ran her hands through her own long golden hair. It was the same shade as their mother's had been. Lucrecia had always admired it, and maybe even been a bit jealous.

She ignored the observation. "Are... you sure you don't want to go to the formal with me?" _Please come. Please come... I need you to be there. _

The teenager scoffed, still projecting her playful grin. "I would rather eat night crawlers than hang out with a bunch of suits and Shinra flunkies."

Lucrecia frowned. "Hey now, that's not nice."

Sille giggled. "You know I didn't mean you."

_But it does fit me so perfectly well, doesn't it? If the shoe fits..._

She decided to let the comment go, afraid that if she were to let her mind tread there again, the obsession would rear its ugly head and send her mind spiraling back to the project frustration. There was absolutely no coming back from that. Now is not the time for obsessing. She pouted at her sister. "Please go. Please, please go with me. Please. Don't make me beg; it won't be pretty."

"Yeah, answer is still no. Besides. I'm letting you wear my favorite dress. Everyone else's dresses are probably from that scrubby shop in the Wall Market, but you're going to shine like a star. Maybe you'll even be able to get your pretty Turk alone."

Her head swam with the notion. She'd been alone with Vincent plenty of times before, but there was something about being alone with him with him while dressed so formally made her chest tight heart skip.

She felt the heat on her face, and hoped the blush didn't show enough for Sille to notice. "For the last time, he's not _my_ Turk. He's just... my friend."

She mentally protested the 'just'. Not used to having real friends, the 'just a friend' was so morbidly underrated. He was actually her best and only friend, and the only person in the world she felt like she could completely be herself around and still be accepted. Surely, that was something to her, at least.

"I can't believe you're going to friend-zone a guy like that."

Lucrecia's brow furrowed. "Going to _what_?"

Sille smiled. "Well, if he's single and you're not interested... I wonder if he's into blondes."

Her eyes turned to ice and her teeth gritted together. It was clear that Sille was just trying to prove her point, but that scenario wasn't even okay hypothetically. "I will kill you so very slowly."

Sille grinned. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

She relaxed slightly. "Alright, so I'm crazy about him. Happy? It doesn't change anything."

Sille's jaw dropped at her older sister in disbelief. "Were we not in the same room just now? I hope one day, a guy looks at me that way."

Lucrecia blushed harder. "I don't know what you're talking about; that's just the way he normally looks at me."

Sille grinned wider. "I'll just bet it is."

Lucrecia let out an exasperated sigh. "Vincent wouldn't want a boring person like me... even if we were in a different universe on a different planet in a different era and I was a different person, I just don't have the time to be thinking about anyone that way what with the project and all. And, he's my best friend... I can't ruin that. I lov- I... need it too much."

Sille's smirk was starting to get on her nerves. "You were about to say you love him too much. You love him too much to love him. Does that make sense to you?"

Yes, it actually did. She loved him too much, and the power that love had over her was intimidating. No one should ever hold this kind of influence over another person. He could break her with almost no effort if he ever wanted to. She never wanted to give him a reason to want to. Maybe it really didn't make sense, but it didn't matter. In that defense, there were plenty of things that made sense to just her and no one else. She was fine with that.

"I don't need any more grief about this, okay?"

Sille sighed. "You're the smartest person I know, but sometimes you're so stupid."

000

The auditorium was humongous. It looked like an airplane hangar with many, many different balconies of audience. She'd counted six stacked, but some of the stacked balconies had balconies of their own. It seemed almost like there was no ceiling and the entire room was a double-mirror trick and the balconies were infinite. Only there was a ceiling... it was just dizzying to spot it.

It was amazing how many people actually worked for Shinra, Inc. She hadn't tried to figure out the number before, but she never would have guessed this high. It was amazing, and a little frightening. The auditorium seemed huge when she'd first entered into the half-empty room, but now it seemed to just barely fit all the people even with some having to sit in the aisles and some standing in the back. So many employees... a company this large could easily take over the Planet.

_Is that not what they're trying to do, in a grand sense?_

The scientists ended up standing near the wall on the ground floor. Gast was to speak on behalf of the science department, so they'd stood close to allow him easy access when his turn came. They were also relatively close to the ground floor exit, which made her feel significantly less agoraphobic.

While the president spoke, Lucrecia let her mind wander. What did Sille mean earlier? Had Vincent really looked at her in a special way? Sometimes she would catch him looking at her when she was working, but to figure the look held any significance would have likely been wishful thinking on her part.

Vincent was nothing short of amazing, and amazing people didn't end up with dull, boring scientists. It was just a very simple fact.

She wrung her hands anxiously. She missed him so much already, and he hardly left her a full hour ago. She scanned the crowd, able to see a few groups of Turks here and there, including the one that had drove her back to the building, but she couldn't find Vincent anywhere.

The President, after a few more bouts of applause from the audience, called Professor Gast to the stage. Gast begun to introduce himself and share some of his past work along with his enthusiasm for his most recent discovery, but also being careful to not mention too much about the current project.

_As if there were anything worth mentioning, really._

She listened to her mentor give his amazing speech, and found herself admiring how charismatic she never really noticed he was. He made the audience laugh and react the way the President hadn't, and no one in the room seemed bored to have to listen to his science lingual. Well... No one who wasn't Hojo, anyway.

He stood beside her, leaning against the wall with a scowl plastered on his face. Hojo grumbled under his breath while Gast spoke. "They're all just eating it up like the fools that they are. I've never seen such massively synchronized incompetence."

Lucrecia sighed. "Can you stifle this confusing adversative spite you have for five minutes while he's talking? You'll get your turn one day, I'm sure."

_One very, very hypothetical day._

He turned to her in a huff. "You were expecting me to be jealous?"

Lucrecia chuckled once. "Oh no. I knew you'd be jealous. What I expected was for you to be less obvious about showing it."

Hojo glared at her poisonously, and she rolled her eyes. This constant feud was juvenile and she knew it, but Hojo brought out a very bratty side of her. She resented him for it. Attempting to ignore him and regain focus of Gast's speech was difficult. It made her annoyed with herself that she couldn't just let this childish nonsense go. Hojo cleared his throat beside her and muttered low. "At least I am among the individuals that belong here. Most people earned their way here through their efforts and sweat."

She gritted her teeth and sighed. "Alrighty then. As always, it was interesting talking to you." She turned to move away from him, but the space was already overcrowded as it was, and there wasn't much room to get away from him quickly enough.

"Not so fast, Doctor Crescent. I've noticed something rather interesting I would like to share with you."

She turned back around, stuck. "I'm bored enough, I guess. Please, enlighten me."

Hojo smirked. "Mandatory Shinra meeting; everyone is here. They've even spared no expense transporting the humble scientists back for this specific occasion. You'll notice that the SOLDIER MPs are lined up in the crowd down there, the Turks the second row down, but the Turks assigned to our 'protection' are nowhere to be found?"

She frowned. Where was he getting at? "Yeah, so?"

Hojo shrugged. "I'm glad to see that this isn't concerning for you."

"So they're... probably outside or something. Why are you acting like this?"

"No reason. At least they know for certain where we are." The tall scientist shrugged. "That one you've been spending the majority of your hours with?"

"What about him?" She felt herself getting defensive, and she wasn't even sure why.

"Grimoire's son, yes?"

She paled, for those several seconds she could feel the blood leaving her face. "So he is..." It was almost a fact that she'd completely forgotten. How in the world she could have forgotten something so horrible was astonishing. Forgetting was unforgivable. Letting Vincent believe anything other than that she was his father's murderer in a sense was just evil.

_Not forgetting. Ignoring._

Her vision tunneled and Hojo's voice around her was just distant deep humming. Her stomach turned violently. She didn't hear the words he was speaking now, but she saw that his lips were moving and she didn't have to hear him to know what he was saying. The humming slowly died and all she heard for a time was her own thudding pulse. How could she forget this? How did she let herself fall in love with the son of the man whose death was on her hands? Her breath came in shallow heaves.

It was several minutes before she was able to speak again. Her own voice sounded foreign and heavy with unadulterated remorse. "How did you know about that?"

Hojo smiled, absolutely noticing the effect the subject was having on her and completely satisfied with himself. "Such a forgiving young fool."

She tried her best to dismiss the comment and made another effort to pay attention, but it was a darkness that loomed over her for the majority of Gast's speech. A voice behind them caused them both to turn around, and breaking her from her guilty trance. "Professor Hojo. May I have a moment, please? The President is finishing up this presentation, and then he would like to have a word with you." The man's eyes were oddly on Lucrecia while he spoke, giving her a strange look that would have made her think he was talking about her if she hadn't heard everything he'd just said. Something about that look made Lucrecia deeply uncomfortable.

Hojo just nodded and followed the man out of the auditorium.

The coldness of the man's eyes stayed with her, even over her lurking guilt that was still very much present. She dismissed the lingering strangeness by figuring that it likely wasn't personal; most of the time when strangers were put off by her, it had to do with either her age or her gender, or both. Being a young female in this business meant constantly being underestimated in no small amounts. It was something that would take a little getting used to.

Lucrecia tried to focus on the rest of Gast's presentation, but her mind had other plans. The one thing she'd managed to fend off for months has resurfaced with a certain vengeance.

_Amazing men never love the people who murder their parents, and they especially don't end up with the people who kill their parents and then hide it from them for months. Vincent would never want to be my friend if he knew the truth. _

_I should tell him. I should tell him that his father is no longer around because of me. He deserves to know. It's inexcusable that I've let it go for this long._

_But why did I even let it go?_

_Because I need him. I need him to not hate me, because I can't stand to be away from him..._

_Selfish. Tell him. _

A few minutes later, Gast returned and the people in the audience around where he was standing were congratulating him and patting him on the back. Lucrecia had given her own congratulations, and he gave her a smile and a wink. She turned her face back toward the stage. As each minute ticked the meeting away, she grew increasingly more anxious about the reception.

Not all of the employees were invited to the formal part; there was hardly space for them in the biggest room in the world. They'd be in trouble if they all started dancing, and adding alcohol would be a horrendous ridicule. Instead, they'd invited the board and department members, and whoever they decided was relevant and worthy at the time.

When the crowd was dismissed, she had the advantage of being one of the first out. She'd for certain be standing in the isle every single meeting she decided, for it probably took nearly an hour to get everyone evacuated. It gave her more time to spend with her sister before the party started that evening. _It'll probably take extra long to make this mess look good anyway._

000

"You should tell him you like him, or I just might have to do it for you," Sille squealed while finishing her sister's hair. Her sister had ridden the train up to the Shinra Building so that Lucrecia wouldn't have to bother trying to travel in formal wear. It was very thoughtful. Sille prepared her sister for the big party in a hotel room that the president had rented for the duration of her stay.

Sille had endless patience. If Lucrecia were doing her own hair, it would have ended up in a messy bun or possibly even chopped off if she'd gotten frustrated enough. Sille would never forgive her for cutting it... It was impossible to put it all up, so instead she'd settled with a half-ponytail and curls down her back. Pins with rhinestones kept a sweep of her hair out of her face and held it off to the side. Lucrecia normally protested anything in her hair that wasn't a single band, but she was too anxious and distracted to complain.

"You'll do no such thing," she said in a monotone.

"I don't see what the big deal is. The worst thing he could say is 'no'."

_That's the worst thing?_

"He's Doctor Valentine's son..." Lucrecia stares at herself in the mirror. Sille had done her make-up, and if she'd given her sister complete control, she figured she wouldn't have recognized herself. The applications she did allow were tasteful and modest.

Sille was stricken silent, which had to have been a first for her. The lack of a retort told her that even Sille understood the complication. After several seconds, Lucrecia just heard, "oh."

* * *

><p>Thank you again for reading! Reviews and criticism appreciated.<p> 


	10. 1-9 Attempting Elegance

1-9. Attempting Elegance

000

_Touch my tears with your lips_  
><em>Touch my world with your fingertips<em>  
><em>And we can have forever<em>  
><em>And we can love forever<em>  
><em>Forever is our today<em>

_Who waits forever anyway?_

_Queen - Who Wants to Live Forever_

000

Sille had finished her 'masterpiece', as she called it, with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately, it was just long enough to let Lucrecia's anxiety grow into a hard pit in her own stomach. She wasn't able to talk her younger sister into accompanying her, but definitely not for lack of trying. She did beg. She wasn't proud of it, but Sille had a way of forcing confidence into her almost magically or through some sort of gifted social osmosis, and that confidence would have really come in handy right about now. Instead the younger refused, eventually stating that she didn't want to be a third wheel.

The gown that Sille dressed her in was gorgeous. It was the same beautiful green color as the Lifestream, and it flowed in several layers of shimmering fabric. It cut low in the back, and had a split in the side that went up to almost her hip, which she didn't care for too much. It would have been hard to walk in it if it hadn't been, but when the slit opened, it made her feel a little too naked. Leave it to Sille to own something so risqué.

"What do you think?" Sille asked, looking pretty satisfied with her job well done.

"I think this is your dress and it's too small for me."

"It is not! It's supposed to be snug; it hugs your curves. That's the whole point. Can you breathe?"

"Barely," Lucrecia exaggerated.

Sille grinned. "Good."

"And uh... what's with this?" She poked at the slit in the side.

"Sexy, that's what it is!"

"People are going to see my underwear."

"It doesn't reach up_ that_ far! It's designed to show off your leg... You have long legs, be lucky! As long as you sit like a lady, no one is going to see your underwear tonight..." Sille smirked. "Unless of course, you want them to."

Lucrecia was still busy scrutinizing herself in the mirror, turning to the side and examining the view again. It did compliment her shape... "Sille... It's lovely. Thank you. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Knowing you, you would have shown up in your lab coat," the younger girl giggled.

"I mean it, really... thanks."

"Anytime, sis."

Long, white silk gloves ended just past her elbows, completing the look. Her hair fell in an auburn curtain behind her back; if it was going to be put up properly, they would have had to start yesterday. Sille had figured the occasion too formal for a simple ponytail, and Lucrecia had suggested a long braid instead. That idea was shot down because, quote, 'it gave off the wrong message.' Lucrecia wasn't sure she wanted to know what message Sille wanted her hair to send.

The finished product was stunning, she would admit, even being the especially modest type. She felt graceful on the outside. She wasn't sure how she felt on the inside yet; there was a haze of numbness that clouded over her mind at that moment. She wasn't expecting her condition to improve with time tonight.

_Vincent will be there._

Somehow, this thought didn't do much to help her.

000

She wrung a white hanky in her hand nervously as she waited with Doctor Gast and Hojo outside of the reception hall. Hojo had a bottle of spirits that he'd opened earlier when they'd first arrived and it was close to being empty. They hadn't been out here for a good twenty minutes and he was already getting a head start on the party by himself. She didn't object to this, because she'd witnessed in the past that alcohol made him strangely less painful to be around.

A long hallway led from the Shinra Headquarters building to the large auditorium, and adjacent to that, a large empty room that they saved for big weddings and parties. The stretched hallway was the only reason it might be considered part of the Shinra Headquarters, even though the event center was legitimately in Sector 1, and had its own parking lot.

Among the crowd, she'd spotted Vincent the same time he'd spotted her, and his eyes widened upon their contact. He headed over to her, the male beside him making a disgruntled face as his conversation partner wandered away with no warning. Lucrecia's chest felt tight, but already this night was worth it.

He was in front of her with a beaming smile. "Wow, Lucrecia... You look amazing." He took her hand in his and kissed it just as he did earlier that day, the gesture being so elegant that Lucrecia got light-headed.

"You're not so bad yourself, Mr. Valentine," she replied. He looked down with a bashful smile.

Vincent was dressed sharply in a black dress jacket with a black shirt underneath. All black suited him. Some of the Turks had opted just to wear their regular uniforms, but she was happy she'd gotten to see Vincent in something different. Not that he would ever be boring to look at, but the more clothes she'd study him in possibly tailored in different ways made it easier for her to imagine him in nothing at all.

_Did I really think that just now? _

She'd hoped no one would notice the blush she'd given herself, but she'd never been that lucky. Vincent's smile quickly faded when he'd met her face again. She already knew what was next out of his mouth. "What's-"

"If you ask me what's wrong Vincent, I might have to tackle you."

Vincent grinned widely. "Well, in that case, it's just way too tempting not to."

She took a moment to glare at him, but smile managed to force its way out. He chuckled at her response and she was filled with a bubbly happiness that seemed to kill every active negative emotion. What had she been so nervous about before? What in the world was there to be anything less than ecstatic about when his beautiful face was guaranteed to have a wonderful presence?

She let her mind wander again and fought hard to keep the embarrassing thoughts to a minimum. Vincent was fixing a cuff in his sleeve and Gast was enjoying a one-sided conversation with a doubtlessly inebriated Hojo. Inevitably, her focus went to Vincent again.

His hair was getting long, and the front part fell in his face on occasion. It seemed to annoy him when this happened, and he'd normally run his hand through his hair and it would fall back into its place. Maybe it annoyed her sometimes too, because it was very distracting; she found it maddeningly intoxicating. It was harder than it seemed to focus on a conversation with someone while unwillingly fantasizing running your own fingers through their incredibly gorgeous hair.

Apparently she wasn't the only one who thought Vincent looked handsome that night. As he greeted people coming into the party, she watched the way people would react to him. The ladies' eyes would widen slightly, or their eyebrows would raise and their entire demeanor would change. He would be polite as ever and never falter in his professional manner.

He came to stand in front of her again, offering his arm. She took it with a soft smile. He escorted her inside.

They'd both saw the large group of Turks dressed alike before anything else. Some had ladies on their arm, and there were even some with one lady on each arm. It wasn't likely that she would take kindly to sharing Vincent with anyone, but Vincent luckily didn't seem like the type of guy to try that. Veld caught sight of Vincent and gave him a strange look before waving him over. He sighed and turned back to her. He took her hand from his arm and held it tightly in both of his. "I must pay my respects. Please excuse me for a moment."

Lucrecia nodded, a bit disappointed he had to go so soon. He'd be back, hopefully, but not soon enough.

Several groups had already been seated at the tables, and several more were still flowing in from different doors along each wall. The live music played while the crowd poured in and took their seats at their assigned tables. Lucrecia rolled her eyes when she realized that the tables were arranged by department, but figured that it only made sense.

The large area had been decorated with gold curtains along the walls and a huge chandelier above the dance floor in the center of the room. The room seemed to shimmer in exaggeration, the gaudy decor obviously reflecting a display of wealth and power.

_That's the cynic in you talking again. Funny how easy that side comes out when Vincent isn't around.  
><em>

Gast and Hojo took their seats respectfully, as well as a few other researchers from different areas of the same department, the names escaping her at the moment. Everyone greeted their colleagues with sweet smiles, some visibly forced, and sat down in no particular hurry. Lucrecia sat in the cloth-covered chair with her hands in her lap while Gast would introduce her to countless passer-byers. A waiter in a white tuxedo with a gold tie to match the decor strode by with a gold tray full of champagne glasses. When he'd lowered the tray to offer the table some, Gast boomed excitement and took the entire tray for the group, leaving the waiter looking a little dumbfounded. Lucrecia giggled at Gast's enthusiasm as all kinda of hands reached for the glasses. The defeated waiter straightened his tie and walked away.

She looked around again, this time she was able to spot the most beautiful sight in the room once again. It was just as hard keeping her eyes off of him as it was keeping her mind away from him. Vincent's face was serious as he appeared to be paying attention to a man that was speaking to him. Just then, Vincent looked at her without having to search. He must have already known where she was to be seated, that was probably it. The man he was speaking to looked at her at the same time and then back to each other. The man gave him a pat on the shoulder and smiled warmly at him, and Vincent nodded to him and shook his hand.

"Lucrecia?"

A voice beside her sprang her out of her trance. She was caught staring, apparently. She turned to the source and Gast was looking at her strangely, and he stifled a laugh. "Champagne getting to you already, is it?"

She swallowed, turning back to that achingly beautiful face. She sighed, her stomach full of fluttering butterflies. "I actually haven't had any."

_Vincent is the only intoxication I ever want. And gods, I want him _so_ bad._

Gast just laughed, thankfully not noticing the heat that was developing in her cheeks. "Well then, if you're still coherent Doctor Crescent, may I have this dance?"

She looked back to the older man and saw in his face that he was serious. Her eyes widened and she quickly shook her head in immediate protest. "I don't know how to dance, sir. I would embarrass you."

"Nonsense! I'm not taking 'no' for an answer!" He took her hand, and all but pulled her up out of her chair with surprising grace.

"It's not difficult. See, I'll show you." Gast turned to face her after leading her to the dance floor. He placed one of her hands on his own shoulder and secured her other hand in his massive one. His other hand rested on her waist, and he moved her. He lead the steps, and Lucrecia had to watch his feet to try to match her awkward steps with his fluent ones for the first couple songs. He was mouthing numbers in order over and over again to match the rhythm, but she didn't find it as helpful as watching his movements.

Finally, she felt like she had understood enough to be able to look up from the floor and she was able to make eye contact with the professor. He offered her his warm signature smile and nodded once in silent approval of his impromptu dance protege. She smiled back at him, liking the exercise and actually enjoying herself. The music played on in the large room, veiled by a blanket of laughter and chatter from the guests. She looked to Vincent's direction, which incidentally would have led to another staring contest, but Gast spoke, pulling her out of her infatuated concentration. "I want you to know Doctor Crescent, that I absolutely value your role in this project. You have such promising potential. I know you will make a fine scientist, if that is what you so choose."

Lucrecia smiled. "Thank you, sir... really. That means so much to me."

His eyes shined with a genuine admiration. "And, I wish you and Vincent the greatest amount of happiness in your lives."

Her face fell. "Oh no, Professor. You've got the wrong idea. We're not... He's my best friend." She sighed, recognizing this as the second time she's had to make this correction tonight.

Professor Gast just smiled. "The boy caught me just as I was on my way out to Mt. Nibel. He was very apologetic for the interruption, and asked me if he could know a little bit more about the project. We're all colleagues, no secrets between us, so I'd explained some to him. It was strange to me though, a Turk that was supposed to be a bodyguard taking an interest in the boring science affairs. He asked me if he could see some of your work. It made sense then; he fancies you. It was positively precious, so I enlightened him. I offered him a look at your file, but he'd apparently already seen it. He wanted to see something you'd written, so I showed him your Chaos thesis." Her eyes widened at the man, and she felt the panic swell up inside her.

"You didn't..." She'd whispered, terrified.

_Does he think I'm insane now, just like everyone else? At the very least, he must think I am a total fraud... how did someone so ridiculous end up on Shinra's finest research team? I know I said I didn't care, but I care what Vincent thinks...  
><em>

_Or worse..._

_Does he know about Grimoire?_

Gast must have sensed the internal conflict she'd failed to externalize as just a vague curiosity, because he spoke quickly, in a reassuring voice. "But, I'd asked him when I remembered to, what he thought of it."

Lucrecia swallowed, thoughts still racing through anxiety. "Oh?"

"He'd said just two words. 'She's incredible.'" Gast smile grew into a grin. "But it was the way he said it. The look in his eyes, Doctor... And the way I caught you looking at him a moment ago. I may just be a hopeless romantic, but love like that doesn't happen every day."

"I..." She was starting to blush. "I don't know how to respond to that."

"This is the sentimental old man in me talking, but in our line of work, we never know what could happen. One tiny bad reaction, and kaboom!" He said the last word loudly, causing Lucrecia tense up a little. Gast laughed. "Each day is a gift. Our time on this beautiful planet is a privilege and not a right. We owe it to ourselves and also each other to make each second count, and never let a single word go unsaid. Don't let feelings be unfelt. Don't let love go undelivered. Tell him how you feel about him, Doctor. There might not be a tomorrow to wait for."

The music stopped, and so did their steps. Lucrecia sighed, still looking in Gast's face. She got the impression that the 'it's complicated' excuse wouldn't phase him one way or the other, so she didn't bother. Instead, for a second, she let herself marvel in the discovery that Vincent might actually have used the word 'incredible' to describe her. The moment died quickly as Hojo was suddenly there, smiling to the both of them.

Gast decided it was a good idea at this time to make her extremely uncomfortable. "Hojo, would you like a turn with our lovely colleague here?"

Lucrecia's eyes widened. "Oh, I don't think he-"

To her dumbfounded surprise, Hojo smiled. If she didn't know him better, the smile would even possibly seem genuine. "Certainly."

It was baffling that there were so many ways that Gast could surprise her. His insightfulness and perception that she hadn't realized he'd had, the way he could realize things even about her that she didn't even know and point them out. And then there was the way that he could so obliviously overlook the most obvious details that bewildered her to no end at times. It didn't take any college degree to tell even from an outsider's perspective that Hojo and Lucrecia didn't get along. Maybe he knew, and offered the dance to punish her for not marching straight over to Vincent and proclaiming her undying love for him... in which case, this would be the least humiliating situation. She could live with that, if that were the case.

Lucrecia stiffened uncomfortably as Gast's hands released hers into Hojo's, and they'd awkwardly positioned themselves and moved to the music. At first she wasn't sure whether to show her discomfort by avoiding eye contact, but decided that the behavior would be too childish. Hojo would probably take a sick pleasure to knowing he was causing her inner turmoil. She met his eyes instead with intended confidence, though certainly he was perceptive enough to pick up the hints of her irritation that were present as well. Hojo was leading them both, and she couldn't help but notice that the steps he took were completely precise.

"I didn't know you knew how to dance," she said, breaking the weird silence.

He smiled at her. "There's an astonishing number of things you don't know about me, my dear."

They moved in an awkward silence for a time that probably felt much longer than it actually was. She maintained a professional and vaguely pleasant expression throughout, until something she remembered probed at her. She set focus on his eyes, noticing they were clear and bright even through their dark natural color, and showed no signs of intoxication despite the binge she'd witnessed earlier. "So... What did the president want to talk to you about earlier?"

Hojo grimaced. His eyes trailed over her for a moment, and then made contact with hers again. Lucrecia's eyes narrowed at him before he spoke. "This and that...you know. The status of the project and such." He broke eye contact only once to look her up and down once more, and then his eyes were just as quickly on hers again. His gaze was weighted with a strange intrusion, and something else that she couldn't place. She suddenly felt incredibly exposed under his scrutiny.

He leaned in close to her face and she froze uncomfortably. She half-expected him to kiss her on the cheek the way he was tilted, but he just remained there for several seconds. She realized he was inhaling. He was _smelling_ her, and way too close for comfort. She shuddered coldly, resisting a very strong urge to shove him away from her face. His mouth came to her ear, and she could feel his nose in her hair. "Come by my lab sometime, Doctor. We'll discuss the many things you don't know."

_That'll be the day._

He smiled facetiously at her, and then they went intently to something behind her back. His eyes darkened and didn't break their focus as he started his way back toward the table. She looked to the direction of Hojo's attention as he walked off, and Vincent was beside her in an instant. Had he been looking at Vincent just then? The Turk was staring at him coldly, though the scientist's eyes were back with their uninterested gaze toward the group they shared the table with. Vincent huffed. "That was strange."

Lucrecia's hands came to her forearms and she rubbed them, as if she were trying to wipe the creepiness of the entire encounter off. "Hojo idles at strange."

They walked back to the table where Gast and unfortunately Hojo were, and two other people she didn't recognize. There was a beautiful silver tray at the center of the table now in place of the gold one, and it was full of champagne glasses set up in a circle. She sat down and grabbed at one, taking a big drink. Vincent sat next to her, and she immediately scooted her chair closer to him.

Gast gestured toward her and the man and woman she didn't recognize looked to her and smiled. "Gladice, Harrison, this is the newest addition to our department, biologist, Doctor Lucrecia Crescent."

The woman had a warm smile, and laugh lines. The man had his arm around her and radiated the same warmth, though she gathered from the brief impression that it was borrowed from the woman. Lucrecia's mother had been that same way; bright enough to light the entire crowd.

Hojo scoffed lightly. He had rather the opposite effect on people. "To think that title truly used to mean something." He smiled at Lucrecia facetiously, maybe to imply to the guests at the table that he had been affectionately joking with her, but she knew otherwise.

She gave Hojo a strange look. "'Used to'? Aren't you young?"

Hojo just smiled. "My age wasn't a factor in my employment. I wasn't going for any broken records much like some more apparent attention-seeking members of our department were."

"Go to hell, Hojo." Lucrecia spat. She realized that he didn't necessarily have to be talking about her; Gast was the youngest scientist to ever achieve a spot in the department. Whether it was a shot at Gast, herself or both, it was no matter. Hojo could go to hell anyway.

Gladice laughed, and the sound was so warm that she could almost feel the fuzziness of it along her spine, like a favorite blanket. "How wonderful to have that almost sibling-like rivalry going on! It must be such a wonder to have such an adorably ironic relationship with your colleagues! Being so close, you're perfectly comfortable with the most casual of banter! I must say, I am envious."

Hojo chuckled once without smiling and took another champagne glass from the tray. His eyes shot to Lucrecia for a brief second, and since he'd caught her looking at him, he suddenly looked smug. He then gave her an adorable, as Gladice would call it, sneer. She rolled her eyes.

_Such a wonder, indeed.  
><em>

"So Doctor Lucrecia," Gladice continues, "I hear the current mission is a spectacular one! I know it's supposed to be hush-hush, but I simply _must_ know the juicy details."

Harrison boomed in laughter beside her. He squeezed the gorgeous woman's shoulders. "This one always needs to be caught up in every latest Shinra gossip!" Gladice looked to him and playfully hit him for picking on her. They smiled at each other and directed their attention back at Lucrecia, not forgetting the initial question, both seemingly interested.

Lucrecia inwardly sighed and was suddenly very uncomfortable. These were board members, right? Weren't they the ones to decide if they were to get their extension or not? Was this lady trying to get helpful information before the decision tomorrow? _Not everyone has ulterior motives, stop it. They're just being polite and making a conversation._ The actual truth was there was nothing to say. There could be something, but she was too useless to produce it even a second time, and certainly it was nothing that would sound even remotely impressive with the words she'd use. She didn't have to look at Hojo to know that he likely had his eyes glued to her out of vicious curiosity of how she'd handle this annoying situation that has put her so casually in the center of attention, and probably even had that annoying smile on his face. She would lose it if she looked that way.

Thankfully, Gast saved her. "Ah, ah, ah, Gladice." He waved a playfully scolding finger at her. "A master never reveals his magic." He was grinning at the woman and she responded with a laughing smile. Lucrecia let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding.

Hojo was smiling as well, refusing to be ignored. "Magic is an appropriate analogy. Magic is also mythical and only useful for making nothing look like something."

Lucrecia stared him down. Anger shot through her, and if the table had been small enough, she would have kicked him in the leg or somewhere else.

He scoffed at her and turned in his chair to face the other way, taking another huge chug from his glass. Gladice just gracefully laughed and to her companion, thankfully not questioning Hojo's interjection. Gast was suddenly surrounded by people congratulating him for his success, and she was grateful that the focus was off of her for the moment. She remembered the wonderful presence beside her.

Lucrecia leaned in closer to Vincent, feeling instantly better when she'd looked up to see her favorite smile.

"Lucrecia. Do you... Would you like to dance?"

"Yes," she said almost too quickly. Her dancing dread was gone, and she would have done absolutely anything to get away from that table. Vincent would be coming with her. Already, the night was looking infinitely better.

To her surprise, Vincent actually knew how to dance. She didn't know why she'd been surprised; there was probably nothing he couldn't do.

After that song finished, one began that was significantly slower. The couples around them got closer in a different stance. Vincent and Lucrecia both looked at each other. The look he gave her said that she'd seen the extent of his dancing skills, and slow wasn't included. They'd ended up in a swaying embrace, laughing with each other quietly over their confusion.

It wasn't possible to ignore that she was so close to Vincent now. He smelled wonderful, masculine, a smell that reminded her of autumn with a hint of vanilla. A few of the dancers had given them strange looks. Even though everyone else was close with their companions, Vincent and Lucrecia must not have been in the proper formation for the song.

"I don't really care what we look like," she thought out loud. "Just... this is nice. Vincent, I'm so grateful to have you." Vincent's arms tightened securely around her and she melted into them, laying her head against Vincent's chest. He was tall enough to rest his chin on the top of her head.

She hadn't known how long they'd been just like this. It felt for a moment like he'd been about to pull away, and her only reaction was to reach out and grab his coat to hold him there. She felt his chest move with soft laughter, and his warm breath returned to her hair. His arms were still around her, and his hands trailed up her back to where the low dress ended. She'd been apprehensive about the dress being backless initially, but when she was able to feel Vincent's warm hands on her skin, she'd never been more thankful for such a revealing article. She relaxed against him and closed her eyes.

Her mind went to when he kissed her that day. She became much more aware of his body and his every movement; she mentally traced his arms that were securely around her, all the way to his warm hands. They dropped down to her waist and his arms tightened around her slender frame. Pressing harder against his chest, she could hear his heart beat. It was fast, possibly from the dancing exertion.

The long slow song assemblage came to an end and a very fast song came on that woke up the dance floor and had the people moving enthusiastically around them. She was still in his embrace, and they just looked to each other and laughed, each having no dance skills to offer for this particular genre.

She didn't want to leave his arms, but they released her. He gave her a bashful smile before turning his side to her, offering her his arm. She thought he'd lead her back to the table with the rest of the group, but instead he'd pulled her aside to a darker corner of the room near the wall where it had been significantly less occupied. Her heart raced. She looked at him in confusion with her head tilted, and he smiled.

He slid his arm down to take her hand, and his fingers webbed into hers. The loud music echoed in the background, from where they were it sounded like an almost unrecognizable blur. "I think we've made enough of an appearance here, don't you? What do you say we get out of here?"

Lucrecia grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."

No one seemed to notice as the two slipped past the dance floor and snuck out the back door of the party. Vincent seemed to have an urgency in their exit that made her figure that if one of his colleagues were to see him leave, they might stop him and persuade him to stay longer. A lot of the guests were already inebriated to the point where they probably wouldn't notice a fire if it broke out in the middle of the room, so escape didn't end up being much of a challenge.

He led her out the door with a gentle hand on her arm, and before she knew it or even acknowledged the transition, they were hand in hand laughing in triumph down the Shinra Building alley. They both agreed that distance away from the city was where they wanted to spend the rest of their night.

* * *

><p>Thank you so much for reading, and stay tuned! If you liked this story or hated it, feel free to share your thoughts with me. They're always appreciated.<p> 


	11. 1-10-1 The Proclamation

1-10-1. The Proclamation

000

_Have to take your hand__  
><em>_And feel your breath for fear this someday will be over__  
><em>_I pull you close, so much to lose knowing that nothing lasts forever_

_I didn't care before you were here__  
><em>_I danced in laughter with the ever after__  
><em>_But all things change__  
><em>_Let this remain..._

Pearl Jam - Sirens

000

Outside Midgar, the stars could be seen a mile or two away from the bright city. It was a perfect night; the air was warm and the moon was full and bright, casting a gorgeous glow to the planet. The clouds that did occupy the sky seemed to have visible silver linings. They lay on their backs in the grass in a beautiful field close to the ocean while looking up at the bright constellations. Lucrecia thought the scene could have come straight from a high-quality literature novel.

The grass had been the softest she'd ever felt. She sprawled her limbs out over the green cotton, thankful for the backless feature of her dress for the second time that evening. Anything fancy that Sille had done to her hair was gone now, including the pins and the small braid. It splayed out on the grass carelessly, soaking up the moonlight.

It seemed like no matter where Vincent and Lucrecia were, they always ended the day alone and outside. She couldn't speak for him, but when they were under the actual open sky a distance away from anyone else, there was a freedom that consumed her. It had become her favorite feeling in the world, or maybe favorite combination of feelings. It could have been that Vincent made her associate the outside with taking a break from her work, but it was also something else too. Something much more natural and unadulterated. She'd be hard pressed to find a place on this Planet she'd rather be, but she knew for sure that it was less the place and more the company. Vincent made everything amazing.

They'd spent the last half hour giggling and recapping the party, laughing at the attire some of the attendees chose, and some of the less-than-sophisticated behaviors of some of the guests. He'd told her that one new Turk had gotten rejected and slapped for his freshness, and an older gentleman sat on a plate of horderves that one of the waiters had foolishly left sitting on a chair while fixing a champagne spill all down the front of his suit. Hojo had apparently snubbed some girl who'd ended up crying in the corner for an hour of the night while he ignored another one that came to his side while Lucrecia had apparently not been paying attention. She expressed surprise when he'd told her this; she'd never figured Hojo to be popular with _any_ lady...

Upon the sight of the first shooting star bright across the sky, the conversation turned to star speculation.

"My mother used to tell me they were wandering souls, protecting the planet from harm. I suppose for a child, bits of space rocks burning up in the Planet's atmosphere lacks that certain romance, and my mother was a very hopeless romantic." Lucrecia sighed, smiling.

He turned his head to her, giving her his crooked smile. "She sounds like a wonderful person."

Lucrecia nodded, her hair rubbing against the soft grass. "She was something, that's for sure. Sometimes a handful... I miss her terribly. I think if she were still here, I would have turned out a lot different..."

"But, you're wonderful just the way you are." Vincent smiled, and she was flooded with a divine heat. Her heart raced.

_No, you're wonderful..._

But there was still something nagging at the back of her mind.

"We have a couple of days before we leave back home for Nibelheim," she said. "Do you have any family that you'll want to see before we leave? You don't know when we'll be back again." She winced inwardly at her own question, reminding herself of her role in the death of his father. This was an unfortunate fact still, but it would still be very unfair if she didn't let him see his loved ones. She didn't want him to think that just because he was assigned to her protection meant he had to babysit her every second of the stay, either.

Vincent just shook his head. "My mother passed away about twelve years ago. I was an only child..." Lucrecia waited for him to continue, but he didn't after that. In spite of herself, she shouldn't have been, but she was still incredibly curious if he knew anything specific about her link with Grimoire's death. "What about... your father?"

"He's dead. He died not too long ago, I heard. Some freak accident in the laboratory."

_More like some accident involving a freak in a laboratory. _

She looked down to the ground. Even though it seemed like he wasn't aware of the details, the guilt still surfaced. "I'm so sorry," she said, those words holding more truth than he could ever possibly know.

Vincent just shrugged. "Don't be. I've never met him. He wasn't a good person."

"Wait. How do you know he wasn't a good person if you've never met him?" Lucrecia was suddenly curious if they were even speaking of the same person. It certainly didn't sound like Doctor Valentine. Had their names and their incredible resemblances just been a very extraordinary coincidence? _No, he did say laboratory_... Like most scientists, she didn't believe in coincidence.

"He left my mom once she told him she was pregnant. She'd tried to contact him over the years, and he'd never answered back. He was a researcher for Shinra; she'd write multiple letters a year to the department. She was sure he'd received them, but... He did write me a letter or so, maybe once every two or three years, but those didn't start until after my mom died. Pity, perhaps? He never cared about her or me. That was just fine, though. We were better off without him." Vincent spoke matter-of-factly, with no sadness or remorse for the fact that he never knew Doctor Valentine.

"No one is better off without a parent..."

_I'd orphaned him. _

_Tell my son I'm sorry._

_I'm sorry Doctor Valentine, I can't..._

"He did love you though. He did care." Vincent gave his companion a strange look and she inwardly scolded herself. "I mean... It's impossible to not care about your own child."

Vincent shrugged against the ground. "He was probably too far in denial to even let that sink in. My mother told me that he would always love his work much more. He was obsessed with the Cetra."

With the Cetra? Grimoire and Gast would have made good partners, then. It made sense, because he seemed to dwell on the Ancient subject in class much more than anything else. Why had he become a teacher instead of spending more time researching? He could have been the one involved in this ground-breaking discovery and such things would have already been known... and Vincent would still have a father, even if they didn't have the greatest of relationships.

He was smiling at her when she looked over, and she covered his hand with hers. "I don't know my father, either."

Vincent turned his palm over so her hand fell in his, and he gave it a sympathetic squeeze. She understood what he'd said about his mother and him being better off, though it was just a little harder to accept when she'd known Grimoire Valentine. Lucrecia's father had been elusive as well, and as far as she knew had only been in her mother's life two times, each time resulting in a child that he'd ignored. She knew nothing about the male, and she'd never been curious enough to ask. Doubtlessly better off without him. Dr. Valentine just didn't seem like the type to run away from his paternal responsibilities, but perhaps she hadn't known him as well as she thought she had.

A bright star illuminated the sky, and they'd both seen this time. Lucrecia gasped and pointed. "A shooting star!"

"A shooting star..." Vincent echoed. "That one was perfect. We shouldn't let it go to waste. There was something that shooting stars were supposed to grant. A good luck charm, perhaps. It would make complete sense, since one would have to leave Midgar to see them. Once you've left Midgar, your luck has already improved substantially."

They both laughed. "Well, in that sense," she chuckled. "I think we're supposed to wish on it."

"Why? What would you wish for?"

The warm night breeze swirled over them, making the trees sway hypnotically and whisper gentle secrets to each other. The air around them carried the semblance of contented exhilaration, and she'd wondered if he felt it too.

Feeling suddenly brave, she turned on her side to face him. His eyes were closed and his chin tilted up slightly. His dark hair fell over part of his face and the moonlight played off of his high cheekbones, contributing an incredible contrast. His lips were shaped into a slight smile and his chest rose and fell peacefully. His arm moved over his chest and brought her out of her trance. She pushed the thick strand back so it fell across the other side of his cheek.

His eyes were opened and fixed on her as soon as her fingertips made contact with his skin. He'd turned on his side to face her successively, causing their faces to only be inches apart.

"You never answered my question." His voice was low and carried something that went straight down her spine. The moonlight reflecting in his eyes gave them a new shine that took her breath away.

"It's complicated," she whispered.

000

They took the long way back, or at least a way they thought would be in the general direction of back, by walking across the beach. It was possible they'd overshot Midgar entirely and they were just walking indefinitely in a direction, but neither seemed to mind if this really was the case. They walked and talked for nearly an hour while the ocean waves lapped at their feet. Lucrecia had long given up trying to keep her dress from getting soaked. It moved with the water, clinging to her ankles when the tide rolled back in.

"We have to almost be to Kalm by now."

Lucrecia giggled. "We haven't been out here _that_ long."

"I bet we could make it. We could walk anywhere we wanted to right now. Where do you want to go?" He was grinning, and he'd spin around and started walking backwards so he could face her.

She stared at him teasingly, failing to keep a smile off of her face. "Costa Del Sol."

"It's not that far away, is it?" He starts treading into the ocean in the town's direction. He was waist deep before he turned around and waved for her to follow.

She stared at him in disbelief. "Vincent Valentine, what in the gods' planet are you doing?"

"You're coming, aren't you?" He fell back-first into the gentle waves and started treading water, even though it was still shallow.

"You're ruining your tux!" She scolded with laughter in her voice that couldn't be helped. Vincent just smiled. He had such a gorgeous smile. It never failed to make her weak in the knees and give her butterflies, even when he was being completely and perfectly ridiculous.

"We've got to leave now if we're going to make it there by morning." He strode toward her and before she could move away, he grabbed her arm and led her into the water.

"Vincent, you're crazy! What- No! Let go Vincent!" She was laughing, and ended up falling into the waist-deep water. It was partially on purpose, but Vincent didn't have to know that. If she were being completely honest, she'd admit that if Vincent walked into a wall of flames, she'd follow enthusiastically. "You are in so much trouble when Sille finds out what you did to her dress."

"I like it better like this," he said in that same low voice from earlier, locking his eyes onto hers. When he used that tone, it made her stomach do flips, and her body react in some rather embarrassing ways. His eyes held a weight that she couldn't decipher, and she had to look away when she felt a surge of emotion from the eye contact.

_He's so perfect... Why can't I just enjoy his company without these weird feelings getting in the way? _

She was aware that the project had to end one day, and with the way things were going it was likely to be much sooner than later. Vincent would be gone and out of her life and possibly assigned to someone else's protection, and that would be something she would have to live with.

Vincent apparently noticed her mood shift. He stood up in the water and helped her up, and he led her back to the beach. He brushed the strands of wet hair out of her face with the back of his hand in a caress. Lucrecia pressed her cheek into his warm hand and opened her eyes to find his fixed on her and full of concern. "Vincent..."

He sighed. "I hate to see you troubled. It literally hurts. I can't take this anymore. I'm here for you, always. Please... let me help you."

She felt her heart race and felt like any minute it would just give up and quit. She swallowed hard and focused on her breathing, suddenly feeling tears coming on. "Vincent."

"Open up to me, Lucrecia. Let me in. I feel like I can tell you anything, and I want it to be the same for you. I know you hate it when I ask, but it's only because I hate knowing that there's something that's bothering you... Is it Hojo? Are you nervous about the extension proposition? Is it... me?" There was a hurt in his eyes that stabbed her right in the heart. "Please, Lucrecia. Let me help you. Talk to me."

"Vincent I love you," she inelegantly blurted out and immediately wished she hadn't. Vincent's eyes locked on hers as well as his entire attention. He was looking at her now as if she'd just told him the world were about to explode. No hope that he hadn't heard it or misunderstood; there was absolutely no going back now.

_That wasn't really what you wanted to tell him, was it? But it's better than the other thing... I'm such a coward._

"Um... and I'm not used to it... These feelings... I don't know how to deal with this. The way I feel when I'm around you... You're my best friend, and I never ever want to lose what you've given me; it's more than anyone else ever has or could... I... no one else has ever affected me the way you do." She attempted to swallow the ever-constricting lump in her throat. "I know... kissing me that one time was a divergent. I understand that, and I appreciate that more than you know. I don't want to make this weird. I would never ask you to return these feelings; I just need you to stop asking me... what's..."

He took those final steps towards her that closed the distance. She felt his hand under her chin caress her jaw and she lost her words entirely. His eyes were half-lidded and concentrated. His hand tilted her face up, and he pressed his warm lips to hers. Her eyes closed and the world melted away around her as the kiss deepened. Sparks flew inside her mind as her knees weakened, and she had grabbed his shoulder for support. His arms came around her then, and she sank into them, pressing her body to his in a loving embrace.

_I was wrong. The Promised Land is real, and this is it._

Not long enough later, he pulled back to look at her, and his warm hands closed around her frozen ones. Her eyes were still closed, afraid to make contact with his. If she'd have even found one hint of regret in his eyes, she didn't think she could take it. Instead, she awkwardly carried on, almost completely out of breath. "Please don't feel like you have to-"

He silenced her with his lips, and kissed her over and over again. "Lucrecia," He brought a hand up to her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. They held no trace of regret, only a building excitement. "Stop talking." His incredibly soft lips were on hers once again without hesitation.

"Okay," she squeaked between his kisses.

She hadn't imagined this as a reality, especially since she'd only told him how she felt so he could stop asking what was wrong almost every single time he'd seen her. She never dreamed this would be the outcome. She'd visited this scenario a thousand times in her daydreams, but his lips tasted so much better in real life. The wave of pleasure that crashed over her threatened to make her knees buckle completely.

He pulled back once again, and Lucrecia made a small whimper in protest. When she opened her eyes and saw his, they took her breath away with the overwhelming adoration they held. "Lucrecia, I love you, too. I love you so much. Ever since the very first moment I met you, I've loved you."

It was Lucrecia's turn to kiss him. She captured his lips frantically, desperately, as if afraid that any second he might disappear into a sleepy waking haze and she would be left pining for the lost dream.

_But it isn't a dream._

Their kiss deepened with a warm breeze that blew through her hair. Suddenly, Vincent's warm hands were on her back again, trailing up to bury themselves in her hair. His fingers on her scalp made her whole body tingle. He loved her too. This was real, and he'd told her. Not imagination. Not speculation. He'd actually said those words. It was true and there was no way she could delude herself into thinking it wasn't. They were in love. It was real, and she would never deny it again.

000

* * *

><p>As absolutely always, thank you so much for taking the time to read this! There's more to come, so see you next time!<p> 


	12. 1-10-2 These Damned Things

1-10-2. These Damned Things

000

_Time waits for no one,_  
><em>So do you want to waste some time, tonight?<em>  
><em>Don't be afraid of tomorrow,<em>  
><em>Just take my hand, I'll make it feel so much better tonight.<em>

_Hurts - Illuminated_

000

For hours they laid under the stars that night, giggling, talking and kissing. Each time their lips met, Lucrecia's body surged with a powerful electric euphoria that radiated in her head, and then shot through every vein, nerve, and capillary of her body. It was the first time Lucrecia felt as young as she really was, and it took loving Vincent to make her realize that never in her life had she actually lived as a girl of young twenties. She'd been on the other side plenty of times with only the ignorance of what it had truly felt like to be reckless, infatuated, vulnerable and free.

Through her blissful stupor, it was practically impossible to stop kissing him. When she managed to stop, it was never longer than a full minute before her lips were against his again, drinking him in. It was all the fervor of a prolonged need that had been unjustly denied for far too long, and the relief itself was inebriating. Between kissing episodes, the two marveled in each other's revelations.

She was laying on her side, and gazing at her new lover like he was the last tangible reality in the universe. She thought her heart might fly away. She needed him to hold the strings, and if she were to look away for an instant, he might have dissolved into a reality that she would never again be able to gracefully accept. If she looked away, he might have never even been there at all.

"I thought you knew," Vincent replied when she asked him why he'd never told her about his feelings before. "I _kissed _you."

"That was to help me not think about the project stuff!" She said.

"Yes, but I was also hoping to help you think of _me_." The smile on his lips grew wider.

"I don't need help with that, trust me. You're very often the only thing on my mind..." She bit her lip. They were going to get her in trouble. "I guess I figured you were just very meticulous at your job."

Vincent smiled and kissed her again, and pulled away and his gorgeous garnet eyes were gazing intently back at her. When he finally pulled away, his form fell back gracefully against the soft grass. He turned his hand over so his palm was against hers and squeezed. They fell into a comfortable silence as the waves rolled across the sand. Just existing underneath the vast open universe with endless contentment and understanding in the newfound fragile state made her aware of every thump of her heart. Occasionally, she would get the impulse to pinch herself, just to reassert the reality of her biggest fantasy coming true. What had the future held for them now? Would they be lovers? Would the company even allow that? They didn't have to know, of course. She couldn't imagine that there was a force powerful enough to pull her away from Vincent's side as long as he would want her there.

He seemed to snap out of his trance when he looked at her. He smirked and she watched it turn into a wide grin as he continued to lie still with his back in the grass when she crawled over to him, kissing the line of his jaw. "This is the most incredible day of my life. Hopefully there's no regulations about inappropriate relationships between employees."

Vincent just laughed the most amazing sound she'd ever heard. "No. Actually, I think It's possibly even encouraged. It better protects secrets when marriages stay within the company."

Her heart skipped.

_Marriages... one day marry Vincent?_

Electricity surged through her body. The Turk had likely only used that word as an example, but she could feel her face heating and her pulse rising in an involuntary biological response.

"Yes, but." She brushed her lips against his as she spoke. "I don't know about you... But I hope this relationship gets_ very_ inappropriate."

Vincent shuddered underneath her, giving her a twinge of satisfaction.

000

There were still illuminating stars left when the two decided to take the stroll back to Midgar. The night would end soon, like all good things did, only this time when this good thing ended, Vincent would be there to supply the next good thing, and it would be real.

Shinra had gone all-out and put the conference guests up in hotels for their stay. She would have been just as happy staying in her house at the slums, though transportation would have been a bit of a hindrance... And possibly that could even mean less Vincent, which was only an inside concern before that very night. Gast said that the president insisted the Project staff remained close by for the duration of their homecoming. Probably, they'd want the researchers available to them as much as possible.

They had the two other scientists staying in separate buildings than her. Not that this bothered her in the slightest, it just occupied a passing thought of curiosity.

"230...232...Right here, 234... this is it, I guess." She shoved the key onto the lock of the suite and opened the door. The freshly finished wood smell hit her first. It was dark outside, but the lights on the end tables were already on, and a welcoming flame waved from the center wall fireplace. The walls were half mahogany paneling and half rich burgundy paint topped with exquisite crown molding. Mixed with the warm lighting, it gave the room a classic old-time feel, though from the look of the lobby she would have guessed the hotel to be newly built. The room itself was just pretentious enough to stun the bureaucrats staying into a stunned silence, in hopes that they won't have anything to complain about and hopefully they find the room to be just sufficient enough as what they deserve.

In the center of the room, there was a red velvet sofa with gold lion-claw legs that screamed 'expensive antique', or at least a very convincing replica. The sofa was placed in front of a breathtaking black marble mantel. On either side were humongous bookcases no doubt filled with timeless literary classics. A wooden chess table with two velvet-cushioned chairs sat in a far corner of the room. The ceiling was so high, and there was just so much space... It was almost intimidating. The windows were wide, stretched to the ceiling, and finished in exquisite drapery. They overlooked the bright lights of the Midgar plate.

"Woah." She turned and wandered into the bedroom, which was just past two large ajar wooden doors. A king size bed sat in a large wooden frame with a quilted shiny bedspread, and at least two dozen pillows. An up-close examination revealed the shine to be a gold thread. If she didn't know better, she might have been convinced it was real gold. The vision was stunning and had put her in complete awe.

Vincent cleared his throat from the doorway and her head turned, her eyes landing on the most beautiful thing in the room. He was his wonderful tranquil self and completely unaffected by the glamored sophistication the room had to offer. He stalked coolly into the room and leaned against the wall of the threshold instead, his eyes fixed intently on her. "What do you think?"

"I think I..." She was still at a loss for words before the obvious had occurred to her. Vincent wasn't looking around in the same awe that she had been. Had he seen it before? Her eyes narrowed at the man. "Did you do this?"

"This?" He gestured around the room. "No. I didn't pick out the curtains or arrange the furniture. But I might have persuasively insisted that you be very well taken care of."

"Gods, Vincent. You didn't have to..." She looked around the room again and lost her words. Her eyes set on the beautiful bedspread once again, and she looked around deliberately. She turned back to him with a hint of a smile. "There's only one bed," she observed with a feign sternness.

"Nothing gets passed you, does it? Damn to hell that educated observation of yours." He winked at her, and her heart fluttered. He smiled brilliantly again. "They must really like you here. _My_ room doesn't look this nice." The implied halo around his head was almost visible.

"Nice save," she teased.

She sat on the bed and sank into it. It cradled her form and she felt herself sinking further into the linens by the second. She struggled to sit up.

"So. What do you think?" He asked again.

"I think the bed is trying to eat me." She finally managed a sitting position, her legs still dangling off the side.

He smirked. "Too much?"

"After being a peasant all my life." She smiled sheepishly. She'd never before used that word to describe her childhood, always and still considering herself very lucky for having more than what most people had growing up in the slums. The word seemed appropriate with the forced realization that this was how the big-wigs were living all this time when people were starving just less than miles away... poverty was a gentle description of the contrast. "But really... I think it just needs... something else."

Vincent slowly glided over to her, the two never broke eye contact. Every strode that brought him closer sent Lucrecia's heart rate up. He stopped in front of her so she was gazing up at him. His hands came up to cradle her face, and she closed her eyes against the feel of his fingers tracing her cheeks. She leaned her face further into his loving hand.

Her knees went to either side of his legs and squeezed. This caused the Turk to lose his balance, through it was clear that he wasn't trying terribly hard to keep it. She laid back at the same time, and they fell against the overly soft mattress together in a breathless heap. He caught himself before crushing her, and in an instant his lips were on hers again.

Her hands tugged at the hems of his jacket. His arms fluidly slipped out of it. The garment fell to the ground with a thick thud and was quickly forgotten. His lips were gentle along the skin of her clavicle, the gentle manner didn't match the warm staggering breaths released shakily against her skin. They lingered lovingly in each spot, worshiping her flesh. He nipped at her collarbone once, and she squirmed.

They were halfway off the bed still, and Vincent apparently took notice of this. Swiftly, he slid his arm under her back and lifted her, shifting her weight so that she was in the center of the huge comforter. Her eyes widened at this, and she had only a second to marvel at his strength before his hands on her body rendered her mind completely useless.

Her own hands were no longer part of her control. After long months of being denied access to this gorgeous body, they were taking the absolute most out of their new opportunity. They snuck under his white dress shirt and over the hot plane of his back all with a complete consciousness of their own. They trailed back down, memorizing his muscles moving beneath his skin while his mouth worked at her, until they came to his belt.

And he froze just as still as if time itself had stopped.

"What is it?" She giggled nervously, having the sense that she might have just been a bit inexperienced in her movements, and went to kiss him again. He took a breath once and the stillness returned, his eyes the only part of him moving frantically, searching for something that was not in the room. He'd become a solid wall pressed against her and she was sure he'd stopped breathing. When he drew back slightly, she looked up, searching his face. "_What_?" She asked again.

"Have you... uh. Are you a...?" His brow furrowed. It was adorable to watch him struggle with the word, as if just saying it meant that he could taint the meaning.

"Virgin? Yes. Why? Are you?" She didn't give him time to answer before she was hungrily at his lips again. The question was rhetorical, only asked in an attempt to vanish the awkward situation it might have created, since she already gathered that he wasn't.

Unfortunately to Lucrecia's chagrin, Vincent felt the need to add the awkwardness into the situation anyway. Forcefully. With a figurative jackhammer.

Vincent sat back as far as she would allow him to, searching her face. His eyes shown with a concern that made her feel so warm. "Lucrecia... We don't have to... we shouldn't go so fast."

She blinked. "It's okay. I want to." She went to kiss him again, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"No, I mean it... You could feel influenced tonight to do something that you're not ready to do. This is a very delicate situation... I want to make sure that you know it's truly what you want."

She looked at the Turk with disbelief. "You're worried it won't be consensual? Are you serious?"

Vincent winced. "Well, I'm sure that it would be tonight, but I never want you to do anything that you'll live to regret even for a second."

"It was fine a few minutes ago..." She defended dejectedly. It was a double-standard, for had she not been a virgin, they could have been in deep in the throes of passion by now. The same could be said if Vincent had been a virgin himself, but it wasn't the case. One was and one wasn't, and since she was the one that happened to be, it could only mean that because Vincent was the one that wasn't, it gave the one that wasn't some deep theoretical insight into what was best for the one that was. She had half a mind to throw him the sexist card.

If that was truly the case, that being a female with virginity meant you were an emotionally ignorant fool, then she couldn't be in a bigger hurry to get rid of it.

"I wasn't thinking a few minutes ago. I apologize; you have that effect on me more often than I'd like to admit."

"So... don't think now." Her lips were on his again, and they were kissing her back. She began to get encouraged but after a few moments of heaven, she felt his strong hand pulling her away. He let out a staggered breath against her lips, but maintained his composure. Lucrecia sighed. "But why?"

"I won't take advantage of you; I refuse. I just want you to think about it first."

Lucrecia had to laugh at that. It was a ridiculous request, as if she hadn't been thinking about it borderline obsessively since the moment that beautiful man had intruded into her life and shook up her world to a point where she didn't even recognize it or herself anymore. She saw it in his eyes, that he needed this. He needed to feel like he was doing what was best for her as her protector, and even though it may have bothered the hell out of her... "Have it your way."

They fell into a loaded silence.

It was Vincent that spoke first. "It will be mine, and mine alone. Forever." He put a slight emphasis on the last word.

Lucrecia made a face at him. "Do you have to make it so dramatic?"

"It's not dramatic, it's _important_." He let out an exasperated sigh and moved even further away from her. "How can I make you see this? You don't get it back." He sighed, exasperated. "Show me that I'm doing the right thing, here. I need this from you... I adore you so much. I just need to feel that you will never have any remorse." He kissed her and her mind went blank.

This man confused the hell out of her sometimes. Why did these damn things have to be so important to him?

She gave up, settling for a series of chaste kisses.

"So," she whispered against his lips before pulling back to smile sheepishly at him. "You take me for a long walk on the beach under the stars and let me confess my feelings... pulled strings and got me this amazing suite that I have no idea what to even do with... all so we could sit on this huge bed- there's even champagne- all so you could _not_ take advantage of me."

"That just about covers it." He sighed, and offered her a slightly apologetic smile. "Do me a favor and don't tell this story to any of my colleagues."

000

Lucrecia decided that the over-sized bed was way too soft for her liking, so they pushed the couch aside and moved all the linens of the bedding to the suite living room, making a comfy spot right on a brilliant red rug on the hardwood floor. The fire cracked and she mentioned a concern about being too close to it. Vincent put his hand right up to the flames, and they licked his hand. She cringed, but Vincent displayed no evidence of distress. "It's materia," he told her. "We're completely safe."

And if Vincent said she was safe, it was all too damn true. He took the whole bodyguard thing pretty seriously. He would come to full alert when she left the room at any time, and he had to know where she was going. If it were anyone else, she would have force-fed them a piece of her mind. She could never be annoyed with her own personal handsome Turk though, even if she had no idea what in the world he was so paranoid about at times.

The makeshift bed was all set up. The bathroom was glorious. A huge tub occupied the entire corner of the huge room, and she was certain an entire party could be thrown in the bath alone. The back wall was all a mirror, and the other side of the room was lined with counters with real granite countertops that had streaks that shimmered in the right light. Every detail told a different story.

The tiles in the shower section were different shades of iridescent blue. She let the hot water beat down on her skin until it almost ran cold while she tried to count as many of the hues as she could.

Drying her hair properly would have taken on the far side of forever. Instead she settled with dabbing the strands gently with a towel for a few minutes. The damp strands cascaded down her back, stopping just above her waistline. She shook her head back and forth a couple times to shake off the access water, and possibly also to achieve that 'I just had a sexy shower' look... for no apparent reason, of course.

Lucrecia finally emerged from the bathroom, dressed in only a white satin robe courtesy of the hotel. Vincent did a double-take, and his eyes fixed carefully on her, as if she were a lioness ready to pounce and devour him and he needed to be completely aware of every move she made. Lucrecia smiled with a forced innocence.

She heard Vincent's breath hitch when she sat down on one of the sofas, crossing her legs in a way that made the robe expose a whole lot of her thigh. "Can you please... not..." He swallowed the rest of his words, whatever they were she could probably guess.

"What? I didn't pack any nightgowns. I kind of thought I was going to be staying at home."

Vincent said nothing, but his eyes trained on her carefully. "You overestimate my self control."

She smirked. "A girl can only hope."

000

They stayed awake well into the night talking in one other's arms, and taking turns reading passages out of the novels on the massive bookshelf. It was a solid contentment that she could get used to pretty quickly. The romantic fire, and Vincent's protective embrace, the amazing sound of his masculine voice all thick and warm and _hers_... all her worries and cares just melted away. What Jenova project?

The fire had died down to just a faint glow when she awoke on the floor of the suite just a few hours later. She'd heard a loud noise before her surroundings seeped into recognition. It was still night time, though likely in the early hours of morning. She heard someone shouting outside, loud and distressed, and she looked beside her at the other side of her bed of blankets. "Vincent?"

She felt around in the spot where he'd been when she'd drifted off and found nothing except lukewarm recently occupied sheets and tussled blankets. The voice stopped all at once, and silence filled the air around her. She called to him again louder, finding her voice through the haze of the lingering sleepy fog, and sat up when it didn't receive a reply. It wasn't like Vincent to just leave... he would have woken her to say goodnight, or to at least tell her where she could find him should she need him.

The second voice was strong and muffled, and though she couldn't make out the words, she immediately recognized it and scrambled to her feet before ungracefully propelling herself out the door and down the hallway. Forcing her legs to work without allowing the blood to flow through them properly after hours of sleep. She flung herself down the stairs, and despite stumbling from the momentum of her own speed, her numb legs plus the helpful gravity, she almost caught herself. Instead, she'd fallen right on her face when she'd reached the bottom without slowing down.

The impact forced the wind out of her, despite half-way attempting to catch a majority of the weight on her knees and wrists. The _never fall on your wrists_ advice appeared in her head too late, and they throbbed when she forced them to get her to her feet.

She bolted out the door and stopped abruptly, almost losing her balance again when Vincent was right outside the door and she had almost run right past him in her adrenaline rush.

Vincent didn't turn his head when his stern voice addressed her. His eyes stayed locked on a second figure in a white t-shirt with blood trickling in a slow stream down his arm. "Lucrecia, get inside now."

The second man's eyes were dark, nearly black, and puffy from crying. He had healing scabs on his inner elbows. One was still fresh, the one that was bleeding, and a few others were more noticeable because they appeared to be glowing a faint metallic green. A Mako junkie. Mako was illegal in Midgar and in most areas of the world for civilian possession, but some people would use it recreationally for the high. It wasn't uncommon in the slums. Some people would sell the Mako they could find to feed their families to others that would buy it to forget theirs.

"Your disgusting organization is the reason why there aren't any Ancients left! I want my brother back, you fucking scum!"

"Calm down. Put the gun away. I'm sure we can work something out... You don't want to do this. There are innocent people nearby."

"He was fucking innocent! He never done nothing to no one! And don't you patronize me! You're nothing!"

She spoke before she could stop herself. "Why does the Shinra have your brother?"

"Lucrecia," Vincent's voice held a harsh desperation.

The man was young. Probably no older than thirty, but when his eyes dragged to meet hers, they held the familiar sentiment of any child that grew up under the plate of Midgar. Forced into maturity too soon, so soon that the body couldn't keep up with the soul. He seemed to give her presence an acknowledgement, but ignored her question as if he hadn't comprehended her words. Pain wracked his voice as he spoke.

"You... too late for me, but you... there's still hope... for you..." The stranger looked her dead in the eyes, and though the barely-audible words made no sense to her, but the tone he used for them seemed almost intimate... personal. Then again, he probably didn't even know what planet he was on right then.

She watched the intoxicated man move in a sluggish way, struggling against something invisible to her sober eyes. Then, it happened in just a single instant. He moved suddenly and the flash of silver metallic catching the moonlight erupted a gasp from her throat and for a fraction of a second, she was staring down the dark barrel.

Vincent reacted automatically. His gun was out, cocked and aimed before Lucrecia could even mentally register what was happening. Faster than her realization, Vincent had grabbed her and her face was pressed against his chest, his hand on one of her ears. The two cracks through the air were deafening, and she jumped with each one. She couldn't hear the man's cries anymore, or much of anything other than the ringing the shot had left her with. She remembered that they both had weapons and her arms went quickly around him.

"Vincent!"

His other arm came around her, her head was still buried in his chest. "Shh, it's okay."

She choked back a panicked noise from her throat.

"Lucrecia!" He pulled her back with both hands on her shoulders, looked her over frantically. "Are you alright?"

She looked down, feeling something wet against the thin fabric of the robe. The silk stuck to her skin with a thick red fluid. Lucrecia's mind slowed down to almost a complete halt as she tried to drag her mind to the conclusions through the thick haze. Two bullets... Vincent never missed, she wouldn't imagine that today was the exception. No need to fire more than once. One went into the man's head, and the other one...

_Going into shock...?_

She forced a mental assessment to check for where the wound was as the blackness started to close around her vision.

_Wait._

_Not mine!_

Her vision snapped back. Her eyes trailed over his chest until she found it. She stared at the torn sleeve of his jacket, quickly getting soaked red. Her breath hitched as she tried to speak, immediately feeling the overwhelming panic. "Vin. cent..."

"I'm sorry...I didn't want you to see that."

"Vincent, you're hurt!" Lucrecia cried, trying to keep herself from hyperventilating enough to form words.

Vincent completely ignored it. "Lucrecia, the screaming must have awoken you... I'm sorry."

She looked at him horrifically. He just got shot, and he was _apologizing_ to her? "Vincent..." His name was choked and strangled.

"I'm fine, looks worse than it is." His eyes were still very focused on her, but she couldn't focus on anything other than the bullet wound. She didn't know that much about guns... but she had to figure he was downplaying the injury. He was still speaking to her. She couldn't understand the words; they sounded so far away, but he seemed alert... that was good thing, right? She just stared incredulously at him, her mind that was stuck in the slow haze before was now racing.

Call the police? It seemed futile, at this point. An ambulance? Could they get here in time? Closest hospital? Medical school training... keep calm...yeah, no chance of that. Elevation, compression, what was the other thing?

_Now it's quite clear why Hojo gives my Doctor title implied quotation marks._

_Medical has never been my forte!_

During her inner turmoil, she saw the green wisps again, this time wrapping themselves around Vincent's torso before retreating into the butt of the firearm. His hands returned back to her shoulders, shaking her. Her eyes squeezed shut from the movement. "Lucrecia, say something, please!"

His words came slowly back into comprehension. His shirt was still torn and soaked, but the skin underneath was just skin. Not broken. The panic left her feeling slightly silly. "The Materia... I uh... forgot."

Vincent heaved a sigh of relief, but didn't release his hold on her. "You worried me. Let's get you inside."

_I worried him? Is he serious?  
><em>

She cleared her throat, testing her voice. "Doesn't it... doesn't it hurt?"

He gave her a strange look, as if he didn't know quite what she was talking about initially. "Oh? You mean this?" He gestured to his healed shoulder. Just a bullet wound, no biggie. "The only reason my arm was shot is because it was where your face would have been. It hurts much less than the alternative would have. Besides." He smiled in a way that sent a shiver down her spine, and not the usual way. "A little pain is good. It lets you know you're still alive."

000

Vincent had healed himself with the Materia, though the bullet had still left a mark. It wasn't the only blemish on his skin, but she could detach herself from the other ones. He'd catch her staring at it, and turn her face away to meet his, assuring her for a tenth-ish time that it looked way worse than it was. The bullet had missed organs and arteries, so medical attention wasn't needed. There was still a risk to getting shit, he'd told her. If a major blood vessel was punctured, it was likely the victim would bleed out faster than the Materia could heal.

The fear subsided little by little, and as it left her, a brand new curiosity grew in its space. She was desperately grateful that Vincent hadn't been critically wounded. Thinking about Vincent not being alive anymore was not something she could handle.

But that didn't quell her most burning concern at that moment. That man had been heavily intoxicated no doubt, but he'd been accusing the Turks specifically about the disappearance of the Ancients... And his brother.

She was lying in his arms once more as she had earlier that night, both staring at the fireplace full of new flames in the otherwise dark room that the subject intruded its way into her mind once again, not allowing her to ignore what should have been a very obvious question. Vincent had since offered no explanation and it was becoming infinitely more clear that he would actually let the subject be ignored all night. She had a feeling she wouldn't be able to forget so easily.

_There was a time and a place for everything._ _It can wait. He could have died tonight... could have lost him forever...  
><em>

She held him tighter at that thought. "How did a handsome elite Turk end up being a bodyguard to a bunch of boring scientists? I bet this assignment is proving to be more strenuous than you expected, huh?"

"This assignment was supposed to be a vacation for me..." He sighed, but a hint of a smile still remained on his lips. "And yes, my love. Keeping track of _you_ is a constant job."

000

* * *

><p>Thank you so much for reading! I hope you all had an AMAZING Christmas!<p> 


	13. INTERLUDE I

INTERLUDE

Always, I'd thought the worst that could happen was that I would die.

Death was the worst possible outcome, and I could accept that. I'd never been afraid to die, and I was willing and even inclined to pay that price. Vincent and I would spend forever together after all; I would wait for him there. We would be united in the Planet's Lifestream. We'd thrive together after we'd both returned to the planet, and there was something beautiful about that comfort. I used to know for an absolute certainty that he was the other half of my soul, and we would conquer eternity side by side. The world made what we have much too fragile, and the finality of death would leave us with all time and no vulnerability. An untimely death had a certain sincerity; an undeniable romanticism, almost.

_How very wrong I was._

I discovered that the worst part of being in love, much to my surprise, wasn't feeling vulnerable as I had thought before, but the unbearably apparent and constant awareness that my beloved deserved so much better than I could ever offer him. Even worse still was this realization, and I was far too weak to even consider letting him go and really meaning it, even if it meant his guaranteed safety... I'd tried, and failed.

In my wildest dreams, I could have never foreseen Vincent wanting me the way that he almost desperately did. I couldn't imagine that I had done anything in my life to come even close to be deserving of all he offered me. When I learned this, I was no longer strong enough to tell him what was actually happening, what I had done... only if I choose to maintain that I would have told him at all anyway... which I cannot even be sure is the truth. I would find another way to make it up to Vincent; to repent for the untold wrongs I've done him, however high that number was. I would be his slave. He would want for nothing if I could be given that chance. I would love and worship him every day until the day came when he didn't want me around anymore.

_But even that scared me._

I don't want to go back to being that bitter, cynical person who is dead inside and robotic outside. I didn't want to be that person anymore. Vincent changed me and gave me a whole new life. I was a new person. A better one. I was undeniably the greatest version of myself when I was with him. I didn't want the old me back. Ironically, the person I would eventually would become would be a complete monster. _Because I made a pact with the devil, and I let my angel go..._

Of course the guilt was there; it was always there. It was a perpetual shadow that was overpowered by the blinding light that was the happiness that Vincent gave me. It didn't change the fact that I'd been so incredibly in love with him, and even now that I use those words, they don't seem to even touch on the absolute.

I knew I should have told Vincent about his father. I'm a horrible person, because I knew this and I couldn't do it. I couldn't do anything that would possibly leave me without him, even if it was for his benefit. I found out far too late that he needed to be away from me, no matter how much he resisted. He would have moved on. Loved another. He would have settled down with her and they would have had gorgeous raven-haired crimson-eyed children, and he would have been happy.

_Why did I have to know that was a lie? Why couldn't I trust in his future without me?_

_Because he was a Turk, and their lives only ended one way._

I know they perceive me as this awful woman, and I will not try to change anyone's mind. Because they're absolutely right, but they probably don't know this, or don't care... but there was never a second that I didn't love Vincent with every last fiber of my being. I never deserved him, not even for a second.

000

"Answer me." His voice was sadistically calm and almost sing-song, and loaded with venom and warning. He'd asked me where Sephiroth was, and I'd die before telling him.

I continue to remain silent. He can do this forever. Don't I have forever now? His hand came up quickly and struck the side of my sore face again. I felt the movement and I felt my head turn with the force. The blow was inconsequential compared to the pain I had already felt. I fought with all of my might to remain expressionless; to not give this demon the satisfaction of knowing he has the capability of causing me physical stress. I didn't want him to believe he was the responsible for breaking me. I'd managed that perfectly by myself.

"You could scream at the very least... I've gone through all the trouble to sound-proof the area just for you. Your beloved was this kind, you know."

He almost got me then. He almost got a reaction, but I know Vincent is dead. I saw him myself. And I tried so hard... I pleaded over his beautiful still body and I know that there isn't any more life inside of him than there is in me; the only difference is that Vincent can rest in peace and return to the planet. I will never join him. He will finally be free from me. This should bring me peace, but my selfishness lets me be heartbroken instead.

I'd tried to right another wrong in that deed. Vincent did not fade away to the planet immediately as Grimoire had, but he would. I left Chaos with him. Chaos could use Vincent's body as a vessel back to the Lifestream, since he chose not to bond with him as a host... or was possibly rejected. I will never know.

_Hojo got to him before I did._

This time when his hand struck across my face, I tasted blood. I was surprised that I still had some left. The metallic liquid filled my mouth and held a sort of sour hint.

I took a deep breath and spat the blood at his face when he asked me again. It was a dark red with a metallic hue. I'm more Jenova than human now... Or I will be surely, when he is through with me.

"Gah!"He threw himself back, wiping at his face frantically with his labcoat sleeves. I am not sure if the Jenova cells can be transmitted through blood contact, but one can only hope. He looked back at me, much angrier than before. My own blood had tinted parts of his face.

I just glowered right back at him. if my hands weren't bound, they would be around his neck.

Instead my thumb worked at the metal of the table. It was old, and coming apart. I'd been messing with it more and more lately. Something to do with my hands. There were times I felt I couldn't let myself go to sleep. I had to keep an eye on Hojo. He can never look for Sephiroth as long as I'm awake, and I would run my fingers down that sharp metal until it made its way into my flesh, and sometimes deeper... anything to keep myself awake.

"That was a very stupid mistake, wasn't it?" Then he laughs that horrible cackling laugh that was like nails on a chalkboard. The sound alone made me taste bile at the back of my throat and it threatened to make me retch again.

_Vincent, I love you. I'm so sorry that I failed you._

"You think that you're protecting him? He needs Mako injections just like you do. How do you feel when you don't get those shots?" He leaned closer to me, his eyes squinting as if straining them made him capable of reading my thoughts. "How do you feel right now? That is what you are putting your son through, you idiotic wench."

_It doesn't matter what I feel physically anymore._

"If you truly loved him-"

I stop listening after that. My love means nothing. It protects no one. It could not save Vincent, just the way it could not have saved Mother or Lux, and it wouldn't be enough to save Sephiroth. The only hope Sephiroth had of a life away from this monster was my only serenity, and I would not fail my son again.

"He will die without the Mako. He will suffer."

_Not true_, the voice hissed. Not my thoughts, but hers. Sometimes I couldn't tell them apart. _He is far superior to you. He is stronger than you._

Hojo smiled a menacing grin. His hands went behind his back and he started pacing the small room. "No matter. I don't need you, actually. Your memories, right now, are making a record just for me; they are being stored in that maniacal brain of yours and I will gain access them. You see, the brain is very much like a computer. All of your memories are there, every last one... and did you know, Ms. Crescent, that the memory recollects everything ever consciously seen or known? The only reason we forget is our ability to retrieve those memories worsens with age and sickness and such. But no matter. I have discovered a way to access the information from the brain that one has long forgotten." His hands went in the air dramatically, insanely. "I'm a genius!"

_Memories... consciousness... everything seen... everything known... no! He can't know... Sephiroth..._

I struggled against my restraints and broke out into a sob that tore from my throat without permission. "No!" But I was struggling against something else, something that came from deep inside. I began to hyperventilate, but I saw his eyes. Saw that he loved this. My blood ran cold. "You're full of shit!"

Hojo laughed and the sound was worse than before, and far worse than his physical blows. "Not to fear, your participation in this is almost complete. I must say... It couldn't have been any better if you'd actually cooperated. You know..." He bent down uncomfortably close to me, his face just inches from mine. I was trembling, I tried to spit again, but I couldn't move. My hands frantically worked at the metal plating on the table leg. His breath smelled like stale vanilla tea and old leather. "I quite like you just this way."

I could feel my consciousness slip away and I decided I would let it. Blissful nothingness was most welcome instead of this hell.

Just like being pulled up from drowning, I was forced back into consciousness with a sharp gasp. Hojo was there with a bottle of ammonia in his hands, and he waved his finger at me like he was scolding a child. He'd awoken me from my euphoric sleep just as he'd pulled me from sweet death, when I had finally reached the end of the hell I'd created for myself. The day I'd died, he'd cut me open everywhere and forced the alien cells to keep me animated. I'd lost so much blood that I can't be considered a human anymore.

_Not that I ever was a human to begin with..._

"You..." I said between the gasps. The hate dripped from my voice like a black fog. But that was what he wanted. Insulting Hojo was like trying to drown a fish. Instead of hurting him, he would feed on her anger and gain sustenance from it. It was much better to stay quiet, though it wasn't exactly easier.

"I'll just let you think about it for a while. Ha, ha ha." With that, he left the room with a soft click of the laboratory door. He would leave me there for what would likely be hours.

My muscles screamed from sitting in the same position. I was becoming a statue. Solid and cold.

Bracing myself mentally for nearly a solid five minutes, I stood as fast as I could and hoped to send the desk toppling over. It lifted an inch or two, but I wasn't strong enough. I sighed and fiddled with the edge of the metal plate some more, and it broke off in my hand and landed on the floor. I felt the anxiety building. I felt around for where it used to be and just felt the smooth wood of the leg underneath. No...

My hands were confined with a thin zip tie, used in the lab to keep sample containers closed. I tried once again to yank my bone-thin hands from the confines, but the plastic was so tight that it cut into my wrist, and I simply was just not strong enough to yank free and break the skin.

I scooted by butt so that I could lean back and pick up the metal shard and examined it with my hands. It was thin, a perfectly razor sharp edge that was narrow on the pointed end.

It took a while. Maybe an hour. Once the first bloody hand got free, I didn't bother with the second one. Can't go back, and time is the enemy now.

It was easier than I thought; Hojo was probably not counting on be being able to move, since I really haven't much in months.

My eyes frantically scanned the window frame. No lock, no hinge. Just a framed thick pane of glass. My pale, thin hands made a fist and banged on the glass. Over and over again, each thud more quiet than the last until I was nothing more than a fleshy pile of bony limbs below the window, panting heavily through heavy harsh sobs. I'm not strong enough.

I lay there in a heap of a sobbing mess for fucking ever.

The black office chair was on its side. As soon as it registered in my mind, I was on all fours and crawling to it as fast as I could.

I heaved myself on it at first and my arms came around the object, forcing my hands to grab hold and pull. It was heavy, and my malnourished, hypovolemic body shook with the effort to lift it.

The third time, the leg successfully smashed through the pane, the rest of the glass spidered. I shoved the chair out of the way and kicked the remaining glass out of the frame.

"What was that?!"

My head snapped toward the voice outside the door and I squeezed through the window. It was so small and awkward that it would have been impossible to fit if I were anywhere close to a normal weight. I found stability on a thin ledge that was more like a piece of decorative trim for the outside of the building, and clearly was never meant to be stood on. Only my heels fit, just barely. My fingers are straining to hold onto the window, my left hand leaving behind a bloody mess on the wall. My right hand shook and started to perspire, but this grasp was the only thing keeping me on the ledge. My knuckles quickly turn white.

Several times I balance threatened to falter, but I'd held onto the sill tightly. This made me laugh at the irony, but I want to be the one to do it. I want it to be my action. I looked down before remembering that it was the major rule of heights. Don't look down.

But I do anyway, even as the voices boom on the other side of the door still. I look down at the people at the building's entrance, and I remember my first time entering the building the first day of my internship. I remember it so well that I can see my nervous self looking up to the massive building in awe. I will her to run.

I see my future self, a splat on the pavement, nothing remaining. The memories destroyed and inaccessible. There will be nothing left. Even if it was just a tactic to scare me into confessing in fear of all my secrets being exposed, there is nothing left in this life for me. Sephiroth, my child, you are safe now... I will do anything to keep it that way. Vincent, my love, please be at peace. I will find a way to join you soon.

I don't know if this will work, but it is my last chance to save my son. This is my only hope left. This is it.

I took a breath and let go.


End file.
